


Survival of the Fittest

by EWM



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Blindspot (TV), X-Men (Movieverse)
Genre: Alex Summers Has Issues, Alex Summers Lives, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Manipulation, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, F/M, Gen, Hurt Alex Summers, Hurt/Comfort, Other, POV Alex Summers, Post-X-Men: Apocalypse (2016), Whump, X-Men: First Class (2011)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-06
Updated: 2021-01-25
Packaged: 2021-03-06 14:54:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 23,537
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26320735
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EWM/pseuds/EWM
Summary: This is my answer to the fate of Alex Summers, I thought he wasn't dead at the end of the movie. I've borrowed heavily from the movies and the x-men cartoons of my childhood. Feedback very much welcome.
Relationships: Alex Summers & Charles Xavier, Alex Summers & Scott Summers, Jane Doe | Remi Briggs/Kurt Weller, Lincoln Campbell/Skye | Daisy Johnson, Ororo Munroe & Charles Xavier
Comments: 42
Kudos: 15





	1. Chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alex survives the blast at the mansion (reference in the Age of Apocalypse movie) and is taken away by soldiers. I've re-written this a few times, so feedback very much welcome.

Most of the mansion had been blown away by the reactor explosion. A once beautiful house was in ruins. After Stryker took the main mutants away, the rest of the force explored the wreckage to look for what Stryker had described as 'valuable assets'. None of them really expected to find anything, a burned away house full of freaks or even just rubble. Still the guards did their duty and explored, pushing through the debris. After perhaps 20 minutes or so they heard a sound, a groan, a very human groan. The guards followed the cry of pain, through the mess of wood and metal to a hole in the ground. One of them pulled away the burnt shards and there he was. It was a miracle he was even alive, his face had severe burns over it, what was left of his red blond hair was smoking, most of his clothes had been burned away. He groaned again and tried to move which produced a scream. He managed to open his eyes – light blue. Even in his agony filled state, he clocked the military uniform and he made an attempt to crawl away, but failed when a guard stood in his way. None of the soldiers had done a lot during this period. They had simply watched fascinated as this desperate creature tried to escape. When he eventually did collapse, there were some pause for discussion. Did they take him with them? Or put him out of his misery and just leave the body to rot? After a little hesitation the captain, a captain Thomas ordered a medical team to the area and set three of his men to guard the young man where he had collapsed. The remaining soldiers explored the rest of the ruins and found nothing but ash and mess. Two doctors and a nurse arrived in another helicopter on the green of Charles Xavier's estate. Thomas took them over to the young man they had found. One of the doctors, laid a gentle hand on him which made him groan again as pain shot through him.

_"How are you even still here??"_

_"My brother, please...is he here??"_

Captain Thomas who had been standing quietly next to this scene coughed loudly. Doctor Enid, who was so fascinated by this wounded creature snapped into action.

_"You did the right thing Thomas, we can't leave him to die. We'll need to treat him and take him to the facility. Doctor Martin will want to examine him and work out how he's survived such a massive explosion."_

Things moved fairly quickly after, Enid and the second doctor lifted him onto a stretcher with the help of the nurse. They pumped him full of pain killers and fluids, put cold compresses onto his burns and flew away. The helicopter did not follow Stryker and his team, instead they headed to a separate facility. This was the Essex Corporation, part mining facility and research base where "mutants were kept" (a legal grey area in terms of human/ mutant rights as those kept there were criminals, unfortunates and those governments would have happily seen disappear). Looking at it from the outside, anyone would think the place was abandoned and that was something the facility relied on. Despite it’s size all the buildings in the complex had a kind of dusty decrepit look to them. None the less when Thomas and his soldiers arrived with one severely wounded mutant and a medical team, more staff came out to meet them. The head of the facility in fact appeared frowning.

_“What’s all this Thomas? Why have you brought me a smoking corpse?”_

_“No, sir I assure you, he’s very much alive. He survived a mass reactor explosion, it’s amazing he’s even still alive and I figured if he died you could maybe cut him open or something.”_

The nervous captain trailed off in front of him. The doctor frowned

_“Well Captain, while I appreciate your insight, into what we do here. We do not simply cut people open, what we’re doing here is science. We’re understanding the future of our species, the next stage in evolution.”_

_“Of course, doctor ”_ Thomas looked down waiting for the rant to be over. Just then the young man woke up

 _“My brother! Please, is he okay? I just need to know; did he make it out. He wasn’t with us, but I don’t know.”_ His voice cracked

The nurse produced a syringe full of sedative and the man was asleep once again

_“Easy young man, we’ll check on your brother. You just concentrate on yourself.”_

_“Um Doctor, we really need to get him to the main wing, he’s in a bad way.”_ Dr Enid piped out.

The facility head eyed the groaning burned body on the stretcher and waved his hand. The orderlies and doctors shot away as fast as they could. That was Alex Summers’ first day at the Essex Corporation. The next few months were a haze, he spent most of his hours in a hospital bed. Sometimes masked people (he couldn’t ever work out if they were men or women or robots even) would ease him onto a trolley and put him hot lights or computers to be scanned. At least that was his best guess, what he actually saw was flashes of colour and hands gesturing wildly. He could hear people talking as well, nothing coherent, but whoever they were very passionate. He couldn’t really move at all. Every time he did pain shot through his limbs. His body felt like it was constantly on fire or was itching so violently that he wanted to rip off his limbs. To be more specific he wanted to rip the bandages off that now covered him. That was the other thing, his whole body was wrapped in gauze. It got changed daily, his limbs was cleaned up and then the bandages were replaced. As Alex’s mind slowly recovered bit by bit he became very aware of the gauze and the plaster that was around him (it didn’t help the itching situation either).

The first time he was fully awake, it was a shock. He opened his eyes slowly and realised that he was no longer covered in layer upon layer of white. Alex’s eyes were blurry but he could just about make out the outlines of an empty ward. He eased himself up and registered the IV in his arm. Alex’s built in distrust of something/someone he didn’t know made him pull it out (a life time of being perceived as a monster doesn’t exactly enhance one’s faith in people or the world at large ). Then of course his arm started to bleed, he put his hand over it blinking and trying to clear his vision.

Blood stretched onto what had been previously been clean white medical scrubs and the bed sheets. His eyes returned to his own body, he stared at his arm. There were heavy scars that snaked around his forearms and onto his hand. His fingers oddly enough were untouched as was his inner palm. He looked at his other arm, that was scarred too. But those extended right down his palm and all over his fingers; white raised lines, curious patches of skin that had gone an odd colour. He wiped the dried blood from his hand onto the sheets and swung his legs round. His bare feet touched the cold ground, they weren’t painful, just a bit stiff. Alex tentatively tried to stand and then immediately fell onto the floor with a loud crash. He took some deep breaths and raised himself to his knees and waited. He managed to stay steady. Then he stretched out for the defunct IV pole as a walking stick, with the aid of that he managed to sit on the bed again. After taking a few minutes to collect himself, he got up and moved forward taking in his surroundings. There were rows of empty beds all made up waiting to be occupied. Alex recognised ventilators, heart monitors even a defibrillator stacked against the wall facing the beds. But it was all switched off and covered in dust. All the lights were on, but seemingly dimmed. The whole space seemed to have been forgotten by someone. He kept going determined to explore more. Each step felt like agony, but he had needed to keep moving. As he shuffled the memory of the attack and capture of Xavier came back to him as well as the fiery explosion. His determination if not his physical strength increased. Alex had to find out what had happened to the professor and the rest of the team and more importantly his brother.

He edged along the empty ward looking left and right. It seemed endless, bed after bed each with a small table next to it. The walls and ceiling were stone which gave the area an oppressive vibe. Alex’s eyes adjusted to the low light and he managed to spot a door in the distance. Finally, he made it. He leaned against the wall, breathing heavily, sweat pouring down his face. He reached up to push his hair out of his eyes on auto pilot as he had so often done in the past and found it strangely uneven. Long pieces were there, but large sections were missing like it had been shaved or had had surgery or something. Alex poked his head out of the door and looked around. The hall was empty, there were lots of other doors. Surely someone was around that could tell him something. He continued on holding onto the IV pole with one hand and using the wall to support the other side of him.

The first two rooms he looked into were empty and apparently abandoned. Some had beds, other just had large metal tables, covered in dust. The third room was different, he looked through the glass. He could see an operating table, covered in grime and sludge. There were black metal shelves on the far wall with dozen of jars on them. Alex squinted at them, the contents were hard to make out, but the colours gave Alex a good idea. The sepia yellow liquid and dark red shapes were something out of a horror movie. There was some kind of lab assistant there looking at the jars with a clipboard, quite calm. He was apparently oblivious to the horrific remnants around. Alex stumbled back with a clatter. He was disgusted and frightened in about equal measure. He had to get out of here, he had to leave as fast as possible .He dropped the IV pole and started to move. Part running, part stumbling along the corridor, adrenaline giving him a momentary boost of strength. Unfortunately, his actions were picked up by the guards from inside one of the doors ahead of him. They emerged wielding batons. Alex screeched to a halt, taking in the three, no four guards that seemingly come out of nowhere.

_“We don’t want any trouble freak, go back to your bed and this doesn’t need to get ugly.”_

One of the guards said raising his weapon, ready to hit Alex. He reacted without hesitation, even after months of being dormant, his powers didn’t fail him. A vast beam of red light shot out from his chest. The guards dodged the blast and shot hit the stone ahead of him. The blast was so violent that the walls began to shake. Bits of the ceiling started to crumble and hit the guards. Alex ran on, breathing heavily. Sparks of red flicked off him and hit the walls as he moved. He crashed through another door and found more guards, he changed direction and went back the way he came, running faster and faster. Red light shooting out of his body at random intervals bringing sections of wall down as he went. After a while he fell to his knees, exhaustion and pain won out against endurance. He collapsed in front of a nurse who had the misfortune to run into him. She looked at him seemingly disgusted by his appearance, covered in dust and sweat with matted hair, a streak of blood now running down his face from one of the bits of masonry that had fallen on him.

_“Please don’t be frightened of me. I don’t want to hurt you. I just want to get out of here and find my brother. That’s all. Please…”_

Alex put his head in his hands trying to calm himself. The nurse looked down at him. Surely he couldn’t be dangerous? This weeping boy? She moved tentatively towards Alex and did her best smile. He looked directly at her; his eyes were watering. It was a long moment as they looked at each other. The nurse focused all her energy on him, trying to calm him down, she didn’t even say anything to him. She just sat there and waited. She listened to his breathing return to some semblance of normality. That was probably why neither of them registered the guards, who snuck behind them. She saw them only at the last second and recoiled. Two of them grabbed Alex’s shoulders and arms as the nurse yelled in protest, his powers shot out, bringing down yet more masonry. The nurse tried to crawl away from the falling stonework. But a piece fell and smashed her on the head. She lay there in the rubble, bleeding and groaning. Alex was horrified, he tried to move forward to help her, but the guards held him tight. More power start to shoot out of different parts of his body. One of the guards fell freeing one of his arms. The other soldier went to grab his free his arm and yanked them both behind Alex’s back. His powers continued to surge as he felt his muscles being wrenched upwards. The soldier managed to hold onto him despite the burning in his hands and the deteriorating building. A third came forward dodging the falling stones and the red beams. He held a strange gleaming metal yellow device…a collar. He snapped it onto Alex as fast as he could.

The man let go of Alex’s arms and he fell forward. Alex felt the cold metal of the collar and something sharp plunge in the back of his neck. He rounded on the remaining soldiers.He got up and held out his hands but nothing came, the burning red light he had had for so many years was suddenly gone. Alex stared at his hands for a few seconds, then the two men came forward laughing at him.

_“Not so tough are you now, you little monster…we’re going to get you now.”_

They wrestled him to the floor. Alex fought on instinct, kicking out with his legs and struggling as a soldier pinned his arms again. The third man pushed Alex’s head to the forward and kept it there under his boot. Unseen figures came forward and jabbed Alex in the ribs with some modified version of cattle prods. He cursed at them as electricity got pumped into back. He felt a set of hands put restraints onto his legs so he couldn’t even kick at them anymore. Then the soldier who had his head trapped grabbed his hair and smashed his head into the floor. Then there was just blackness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm keen to get feedback on writing style for this and this is a bit of sprawling mess currently as a fic. This chapter is the first attempt a re-write.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alex is interrogated and experimented on by a scientist called Dr Martin at the Essex Corporation. He also discovers his powers might not be quite so lost as he thought (one for the whump fans out there).

Alex woke up again a few hours, a few days later maybe. He wasn’t really sure as his whole sense of time was gone. He’d be cleaned up with a change of medical scrubs, his arm had a bandage covering the jagged scratch from the IV. He was strapped to a metal table like the one had seen in that macabre room. Were they going to cut him open? Store him away like he was some animal to be examined, a new science experiment? He struggled against the restraints, pulling his arms up (they did not go far). He could feel the collar was still on his neck and the pain of a sharp point buried near his hairline. His whole body felt bizarre, it was not exactly painful. His limbs felt heavy apart from the restraints. It was as though some part of him had been forcibly slowed down. He tried in vain to use his powers moving his fingers and hands, no red light came out. Instead he felt a shock against his neck. He groaned. At that point one of the doctors came through a door to his right.

_“Ahh I see you’ve discovered the shock element of the collar, impressive isn’t it?”_

Alex determinedly stared at the ceiling saying nothing.

_“Not so talkative now? A pity, I think you’re fascinating.”_

The doctor flicked a pen and forth between his fingers as he read aloud from a set of bulky papers grasped in his other hand.

_“The ability to emit cosmic energy through any part of your body. A rare power even amongst your people.”_

Alex didn’t respond. He focused his mind on his brother, the x-mansion, Xavier even Hank McCoy, his friends, his family. They would come for him…if they were alive.

_“This reticence on you part is deeply irritating. Please speak. We’d be very interested to know about the explosion. The one you started. How did you survive it? Anyone else exposed to that level of radiation should have died.”_

Alex remained quiet; he had no idea how he’d survived the explosion. He hadn’t meant to start it at all. He remembered Magneto and four others taking Xavier and racing after them, power shooting from his chest and then fire shooting forward and enveloping him. The doctor continued to stare at him. When Alex refused once again to say anything, the doctor sighed and gestured behind him. Masked figures came forward covered in plastic gloves and hazmat suits. Some were carrying scalp and drills, others were simply holding notes pads with pens at the ready. Alex wrestled with the restraints (he didn’t win). The unknown, unseen figures moved to put two smalls disks onto either side of his head. Other sets of gloved hands pushed a needle into one arm pumping him full of something. The only thing Alex knew was the liquid was bright green. A different needle went into his other arm taking blood out. He shuffled his body away from the hands trying to avoid them touching him. He spat at the masks, but he got no reaction. His powers failed him again and Alex got another stronger shock. He cursed and screamed. The doctor who was so keen to make him talk smiled as a string of abuse came out of Alex’s mouth. Someone placed an oxygen mask so his colourful language was muted.

The green liquid paralysed him slowly, he felt the movement disappear from each of his limbs. He didn’t lose any feeling though. He felt it when they cut open his chest open to let blood flow out, to look for sources of his power and to see if he had any healing powers. He felt it when they stuck needles into his feet and cut open his fingers all in the name of science. Alex passed out from all the pain. When he was out cold, they undid the restraints and put needles into his back, removing spinal fluid to test and ‘analyse’. They didn’t let him bleed out, they sewed him back up again and put him in the bed he’d originally escaped from; restrained and heavily medicated. The “doctors” repeated their “experiments” and “tests” several times over the next two months as Alex grew stronger. Amazingly his body did recover from the explosion at the mansion. His hair grew back although slightly unevenly. However, his face became a frightening prospect. He had one crooked scar that that went from his forehead across his eyebrow and eye down his cheek finishing in a sprawling mess of discoloured skin on his neck. He carried another scar across his opposite cheek that look like a mishappen star shooting out sparks of damaged tissue. 

The first and only time Alex saw his face, it was accident. He caught a reflection of it by accident in a metal tray that one of the nurses was carrying. He screamed and tried to claw it away straining against the restraints so hard, one of his wrists snapped. It took three nurses to push him back down and sedate him. Alex’s initial refusal to speak gave out when the experiments didn’t stop. He pleaded with them repeating over and over that he didn’t know how he’d survived the explosion or how it happened. The one respect in which his silence did hold was his friends and family. Dr Martin questioned him multiple times about the mansion, Xavier and other mutants. Alex managed to keep his nerve and said nothing. When he had healed up, the metal table got transformed into a chair, so Alex spent his days strapped down but now sitting up to face his tormenters head on. It wasn’t always Martin who questioned him, other men and women demanded answers. He exclaimed that he didn’t know anything until he was hoarse. The sessions would last hours, and Alex was never allowed to move or eat. Finally, he gave up on speaking, honesty was getting him nowhere and there was no point wasting his breath. His returned reticence angered Martin so the interrogations became more elaborate with different drugs and cattle prods. However, Alex’s stubbornness in a way won out, they didn’t kill him and each night he was returned to his bed.

As time continued on, Alex noticed other patients pass through the facility, all mutants like him. He saw some of them die in the ward as they fought back, and the guards got too overzealous responding. Sometimes the doctors took them away and they never came back. They all reacted with horror when they saw his appearance, crying or turning away. So, the odd bit of monosyllabic bit of speech he had uttered before stopped. He became mute. Eventually Martin became so annoyed with him that he sent him away to work in the mining area of the Essex Corporation. His white medical scrubs were exchanged for a dark blue jump suit and a set of boots. Martin was convinced that he could manipulate Alex so he cut him off from the other mutants in the mine. His world became a tiny concrete cell and a set of dark tunnels with faded electric lights. He saw more mutants around him or who he assumed were mutants all down in the mine. Some were old, some young, men and women all in the same dirty jump suits, all with the same gleaming yellow collars around their necks.

They were put to work lifting huge black stones out of the earth and pushing them all long tracks. Alex tried to work out what the rock was supposed to be for, it left a peculiar black trace on his fingers. It wasn't dust exactly, it was damper than that, it was more reminiscent of a stain, like food colouring or wine. It gave his hands a grey tinge and when the stuff got into the cuts on his hand, they stung. Summers remained silent during his hours in the mine. His body hurt too much to focus on more than simply slamming the axe into the rocks and heaving the dark chunks into the carts. Sometimes Alex pushed the carts or dragged them along. The guards screamed at him if he didn't go fast enough or they'd slam their batons into his ribs. One day he slipped and a whole set of the stones smashed into little pieces and one of the carts overturned. The other workers did nothing to help him, they just stared. The rocks exhibited strange properties, rather than just falling into a heap, they sparked and jumped around. They seemed to hover around Alex before crashing to the floor. He tried to put the cart right and put the rocks back, but his hands felt like they were on fire. Just faintly they started to glow as if his powers were returning, but painfully. Alex didn't have much time to register what was happening as the guards came up behind and smashed the back of his head.

He woke tied to a metal bed with needles sticking out of his arms and legs. He could see the masked people that he had become so familiar with when he first arrived examining his black and grey stained hands. They took several skin samples from wherever they could find the stains on him. Another person brought more of the rocks into the room he was held in. They placed them in his hands and made him grip them tightly, but nothing happened. They tried several ways; cutting open his hand, electrocuting and pumping him full of yet more drugs, but nothing came of it. After three frustrating and painful weeks Alex was returned to the mine.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've re-written this chapter too. I've tried to develop the plot a little bit more and shift the description so it's less repetitive (I hope). Feedback back on writing style is very welcome.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alex gets a moment of kindness from a familiar face and is filled with guilt. He also meets our heroine for the first time.

His world became small again after the incident with the rocks. The guards watched him obsessively for a while when he went back to work. But his powers didn’t come back so they eventually became bored. He melted under the radar and was given the circumstances relatively safe. However, when a tunnel collapsed during his second year at the mine, Alex Summers became very interesting to Dr Martin once more. When the accident took place, multiple workers were trapped and badly hurt. Alex made an attempt to save them dragging them out from under the rubble and pushing the rocks away (Xavier’s teachings had not quite vanished from his mind at this point) and at his core Alex was basically decent and quite kind. He helped people whenever he could. The chaos produced by the accident meant no one registered his glowing hands, dragging survivors away produced so much pain for Alex that even he didn’t pick up on the burning sensation running through his veins.

Although some people died that day thanks to Alex’s bravery many mutants lived to fight and work another day. He broke his arm in the process and a piece of the mysterious stone that caused him so much trouble initially got embedded into his skin. When the guards came to drag him towards the medical bay, instinct made him panic and resist. So by the time they got him to the medical wing, he was virtually unconscious (the guards had not been gentle in their manhandling of him). Alex got dumped in a room full of beds and told to wait. He got a massive bout of déjà vu to the point where he wondered whether this was the same place, he’d spent his first months in when he’d first arrived at the corporation. He held his broken arm in place and waited, fighting all his instincts telling him to run as best he could.

Maybe twenty minutes later what looked like a nurse arrived in the room. Alex got another shock when she appeared, it was her. The woman who had been kind to him when he’d first tried run away, she’d smiled at him and….well she’d been kind and Alex was convinced that she’d died and it was his fault. But no, there she was, smiling and writing notes. She looked at him, Alex almost laughed at the reflected shock in her facial expression that he’d just felt

 _“It’s you!”_ she exclaimed, her hand over half over her mouth

Alex swallowed, but maintained eye contact

_“The crying boy…that poor young man who so badly hurt.”_

_“You know me?”_

_“Yes…you…tried to run, that face. You were so damaged, so hurt”_

_“I…um”_

_“It’s okay, I know you. I’m glad you’re alive. After the quake that destroyed the walls I thought maybe you had perished.”_

_“That quake…I that was me. They were my powers… I’m sorry I didn’t mean to hurt you. I thought maybe the rocks had killed you.”_

_“That was you? You caused all that damage?”_

_“I wanted to escape. I…I just I don’t belong here. No one does.”_

_“Well, you must have done something? That’s what this place is. It punishes bad people keeps them away from the rest of society.”_

Alex’s heart broke, he just bowed his head. After a year and half of hell, he didn’t have the heart to argue with her; maybe he was a bad person? After all he’d caused an explosion, his family, his friends might be dead because of him. They had to be surely. Otherwise they would have come for him? Part of Alex hoped they’d died because the idea that they were still out there and had just left him to rot was worse. But of course, that produced even more guilt inside him. The nurse distracted him

_“Now why are you here today?”_

_“I…um. There was an accident and one of the tunnels collapsed. My arm’s broken.”_

_“We’ll I’m sure I’ll be able to fix that.”_

After that the nurse went around gathering supplies; gauze and the materials for plaster as well as a few other choice items. He put it all on the bed. Then she stood next to him and pulled the overall back. He didn’t have anything on underneath, nothing else was given to him. He grimaced as she pulled the sleeve down showing the embedded rock. She looked among her many tools that she had grabbed and came up with a monster set of tweezers/claws. They were more reminiscent of salad clippers, she all grabbed some gauze and handed it to him.

_“This will hurt, when I pull this piece out, put the gauze on it as it’ll bleed everywhere.”_

He nodded at her and braced himself, she gripped hold of the rock with the metal clippers and pulled. Blood sprayed over her uniform and Alex cried out from the pain, but he managed to push the gauze into place. Then the guards returned, Alex turned and panicked. But the nurse made him stay seated. She walked over to the guards and they spoke quietly for a few minutes. She gestured a couple of times and looked over at him, but Alex had no idea what she was saying. Eventually she came back with a sad expression

_“Let’s get you fixed up as fast possible okay.”_

Then she proceeded to take hold of his arm and pull the gauze away. It still bled, but less profusely. She stitched up the jagged open line at speed, all her previous gentleness gone. Her eyes flickered up to the guards every so often. Alex registered the change in tone, but wasn’t sure what he could do about it. She wrapped up his arm at speed, but didn’t set it at all. The broken bones were left as they were. Then the soldiers who had been hovering in the corner came forward and pushed her out of the way, they pulled him up. He cried out, but tried to make a final plea to her

_“This place isn’t a prison or a sanctuary! It doesn’t do anything. It’s just a hole, a hole in the ground that traps people! No one deserves to be here! Please I”_

Then one of the guards backhanded and he was out. Alex didn’t see the nurse again. The soldiers took to mocking him saying that anyone who so much as looked at him was marked for death. He knew they were right so he retreated further into himself. He became silent once more and stayed away from all the other mutants, Martin’s orders to isolate him remained in place so the other workers grew afraid of him. He was “special”, “marked”, both tormented and protected by the guards at different times. Months passed and Alex grew listless, sometimes the abuse was there, sometimes the experiments were there. At certain points he was left in peace, he learned to just wait it out. Whatever it was that fascinated Dr Martin and his colleagues didn’t go away, but they could never spend all their time on it. So Alex would just hold out until the docs and the masked men got bored and the pain stopped. They never did quite enough to kill him and they would always return him to his pit. 

**

The years passed and Alex stayed very much alone, but he kept himself alive and that was all that mattered to him. It was an odd tangle because part of him wanted everything to end. But at the same time he feared death and what the docs could do to him, could they bring him back only to rip him apart again? This strange grey area that he occupied was all that he could hope for and that was fine for him.

One morning or afternoon? He had no idea, well it was the earlier part of the day they’d been fed once and no mid “meal” had come (when food was provided was the only way Alex could tell the times of the day at this stage). He'd been working on one of the mid-levels of the mine, alone like usual when he’d heard a loud bang and scuffles at the end of the tunnel. He moved slowly up towards the main entrance and then he saw her. She was clean and far healthier than the rest of them even dressed in the filthy overalls they all wore and of course the collar. But she didn’t have that emaciated look that the rest of the mutants did down here. Two guards were pushing her towards the entrance where he was working. She fought back hard, pushing and shoving. She even tried to elbow one of them in the face, but failed. Eventually she gave an almighty push backwards and managed to throw them off, she started to run, slightly encumbered by the heavy work boots they all wore. Alex thought she might have a shot at making it, but then the guards held out a strange metal remote and pressed it, electricity sparked out of the collar and she fell to the floor with a scream. The guards came back over and picked her up again and dragged her over to Alex and dropped her at his feet.

_“You’ve got some company today freak, a new recruit. Try not kill her like you did the rest.”_

The woman rubbed her now bloodied nose and looked up at Alex, her eyes widened slightly at his appearance. He was tall, horribly thin like every mutant she’d seen down here, he had a mass of matted reddish blond hair and uneven stubble. Although it was hard to tell because it was filthy kind of like the rest of him. And his face, his face might have been handsome, had it not been for those scars. A long gash across his eye and down the rest of his face as well as his neck and another scar that covered his cheek. He had also been burned at some point, the mark extended from his ear down his neck and then disappeared under his overalls. The only thing that made him look remotely human were his eyes, deep set and sea blue, they returned her gaze.

One of the guards knelt down and sneered at her

_“Don’t be frightened girly, he might look like a monster, but of all you freaks, he’s lasted the longest. He’ll probably keep you alive or kill you…depends on his mood…he’s our favourite freak. Killed all his friends…that’s how he ended up down here.”_

The guard snorted at his own apparent humour. The woman turned to the guard and then spat in his face

_“Fuck you…you want to find a monster, look in the mirror”_

That earned her a kick in the back from one of his colleagues. The guard got up and joined his partner.

_“Do that again and you’ll be in more serious trouble, just mine the rocks and you might manage to stay alive. You can be monsters together.”_

Then the guards proceeded to walk off, Alex continued to stare at her. He was fascinated, he’d not seen a mutant with quite so much fight in months. It would obviously wear off, but it was interesting to watch, and she had sort of defended him when they’d called him a monster. He wasn’t particularly bothered by it these days, he was well aware of his appearance. Most people screamed when they saw him or laughed. But this woman did neither. She rubbed her back and got up cursing.

_“So my name is Fidah, you’re??”_

She looked at Alex expectantly, he said nothing and turned away from her.

_“Great, a mute…awesome.”_

Fidah murmured, she followed Alex as he walked away from her down through the tunnel. The walls were uneven, although there was the odd bit of wiring that someone had bothered to slam into them, so the odd electric light was present

 _“So what am I supposed to do?”_ Alex raised an eyebrow at her

_“What, I’ve never even been in a mine, why would I know? Not exactly one of the skills you learn in college or high school, how to mine rocks in your spare time.”_

He pointed at the pickaxes leant against the wall and went back to his work. He drove the pickaxe into the walls and picked up the debris that came out. He could never work out exactly what they were looking for, so he just put all of it into the crates at the mine entrance. Fidah started to copy him, she tried to speak to him several times, but he always refused.

As the hours wore on, she moved further and further away from Alex, to be closer to the lights or get away from him. He didn’t really care, but he did see she grew more and more exhausted; she would periodically rub her back. Maybe the guards had kicked her harder than he first thought, she’d either survive it or die. He didn’t exactly feel great himself. The latest series of experiments they had done on him had focused on his legs, and they were still healing and were aching. His own exhaustion kicked in and he slipped, stumbling and following backwards, he put his hands out to steady his fall and then came up bloody.

_“Fuck!!”_

Fidah raced back to him, she offered him the wooden end of the pickaxe to pick himself up

_“So you do talk then?”_

He glared at her and grabbed the wooden handle to get up, but then staggered again. She moved closed and put her hand on his back to try and steady him. He grabbed her wrist without thinking rather than keeping hold of the wooden handle. She stared at his hand on her wrist for a second, it had a huge white streak across, one of many scars. Although like unlike the ones on his face, that one had been gained down when his hand had got crushed in another tunnel collapse. He quickly pulled his hand away from her assuming that she was horrified by seeing yet another mark on him. He wiped his bloodied hands on his overalls and picked up his pickaxe again.

 _“No wait III…”_ Fidah stammered, realising at least in part why he pulled back. He moved furthered away and did his best to ignore her and his now raw hands

 _“Fuck, fuck, fuck”_ She had to tell him something, she turned away so her back was to him.

_“My powers…I…before my powers meant I couldn’t really touch anyone. So now they’ve been taken away from me…I…I’m not used to be touching me here. I keep expecting something to happen…then it doesn’t…”_

Alex was surprised at her response; he had really thought she was just scared of him or disgusted…by him. Alex was still not willing to talk to her, talking meant…talking was too complicated…Instead he saw the pickaxe she had dropped, he grabbed it and walked up to her. She turned around at his footsteps, he offered it to her and nodded. Fidah breathed a sigh of relief, this wasn’t a conversation, but he didn’t hate her. The hours wore on and the work continued. Eventually Alex gestured for her to come to the entrance of the mine. After a few minutes a line of prisoners came along the main corridor, all in the same drab overalls they were wearing, all with the same yellow collars on their necks. They all had a dead look in their eyes Marriott thought. The line was flanked by guards, two of them came up to Fidah and Alex holding manacles and what looked like strange pen syringes. Fidah drew back on instinct, not really expecting to escape exactly but wanting to hide away from them.

The guards saw her retreat and grabbed her fast, the manacles were on her wrists and one of them pushed the syringe into the back of her neck. She groaned audibly then the guards pushed her into the line. Alex did not resist. He held out is hands, the chains went on and the injection went into the back as it had done so many times before. He was pushed into the line next to her, the mutants around them strained and tried to back and away from him even chained together, a reaction Fidah did not miss. They were led down the main corridor, passed hundreds of smaller sub tunnels. They picked up more mutants along the way so it became a strange kind of blue and grey snake of people against the black rocks. They reached a set of metal lifts at the end of the mine, the shiny metal was at odds with the blackness around them. They were all made to stop, yet another guard came out of nowhere with a clipboard, counting them like animals and making notes.

The counting continued, most of them had their heads down. Fidah did not, partly because she just wasn’t frightened enough at this point and partly because she wanted to understand a bit of what was happening around her. Alex desperately wanted to signal to her to keep her head down, but he couldn’t. This wasn’t going to end well for any of them if she pissed off the guards. The man with the clipboard came to her looking around and looked her right in the eyes. She stared back at him defiantly but said nothing. Everyone held their breath, but nothing happened. The man with the clipboard looked back at his notes and stepped away from her. Alex couldn’t believe it, how had she? What had just happened? Then he came to Alex

 _“You”_ he said pointing his pen at him.The guards hustled forward to grab Alex

_“Hey, where are you taking him? What the hell did he do? Where are you taking him?”_

Fidah snapped pushing forward in a bid to protect him, she threw her chains like a rope and hooked one of the guards arms trying to pull him off Alex. The guard and Fidah started to tussle on the floor, more guards raced forward. Alex tried to intervene, make her stop, there was no point fighting, that would only cause more pain. But more guards fell on him, grabbing his hands, his arms, his hair. Rage filled him and he pushed back again knocking several of them to the floor, then rounded on them, ready to throw them against the walls.

Chaos broke out, more of the mutants began to fight; going for guards, trying to throttle them or kick them. More men poured out from separate corners of the mine to pull the riot back. Those had controls tried to activate the collars, but many of the mutants who had them fought on until the electricity pumping into their necks made them collapse or killed them. Fidah registered a little bit of the madness around her, but her mind was more focused on stopping the man in front of her from stabbing or breaking her ribs. They pushed and shoved back and forth, she managed a right hook and a left hook. He tried to hit her with his baton but missed as she caught with the chains, he swung again and again. Then he caught in the leg and she fell to the floor, she put her hands out to brace herself, as they touched the dark stone, blue sparks flew out of them.

The guard's eyes widened, he pulled out his own controller and pushed it to maximum. She screamed as the volts of electricity shot into her neck, but she didn’t collapse. She put her hands onto the collar as if to stop the power, the guard stood over her ready to strike. She looked up at him, the electricity still going into her neck, her eyes glowed a terrifying Cerulean blue and a dribble of blood started to come out of her nose. Fidah reached out to grab him. But another guard had snuck up behind and cracked his baton across her skull. Alex who was still battling soldiers in his own corner saw her collapse on the floor and was filled with anger anew. He bashed guards’ heads in, used his chains to break their necks and stamped on them for good measure. However, there were ultimately too many, they piled onto of him, punching and kicking, striking him with the batons. More than one of the guards had a knife and managed to slash his back, after some time they managed to subdue him and he collapsed on the floor in a pool of blood.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter actually hasn't changed a huge amount. The core of what I originally wrote in my first draft is still there, I added in the scene with the nurse because I wanted to show the reader a bit more of Alex's descent into darkness. Let me know if you think it works!


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fidah survives the riot and makes some new friends (and enemies). Martin tries to exploit Alex's apparent connection to our heroine and comes up with new ways to torment him.

Fidah woke up in a cell several hours later, she groaned audibly and tried to raise herself up. Everything ached, her head, her hands, even her eyes. How the hell could her eyes ache? She swore loudly as she heard various bits of her body crack as she moved around. Two women and two men looked down at her on the floor

 _“I see you’re not dead then”_ one of the men said, he had a round face marked with dark stubble.

 _“I see you like to state the obvious.”_ Fidah snapped back at him.

A woman moved forward holding up her hands to stop any potential fight (it would have been hard in such a small space).

_“Pay no attention to him, he’s just being an asshole. The name’s Remi.”_

She offered her to hand Fidah, but she shook her head. Fidah stood up and moved to the parallel wall to face these new potential enemies (she didn’t really hold out much hope that they would be friends). She put her back on the concrete and examined them. The first guy who had spoken to was large, he seemed like might have been a body builder or a cop maybe in another life. The woman, Remi was his polar opposite. She was tall and thin, deep brown eyes and a mass of black hair. Her skin was ice white, the low level light bulb that hung above their heads gave her a slightly vampish look. The man leaned against the opposite wall eyeballing Fidah while Remi stood somewhere in the middle apparently playing peacemaker. The other couple stood on the sidewall, their arms around each other silent.

_“Fidah”_

_“I’d say it was nice to meet you, but I’d be lying, seeing anyone in this shithole kinda stinks.”_

Fidah snorted at this response, this was the most extended conversation she’s had in almost a month.

“ _So how did you pull that trick out there?”_ Remi asked

_“Trick?”_

_“Your powers, whatever they are, were still visible. Everyone saw it, I mean your eyes fucking glowered for Christ’s sake.”_

Fidah paused, she didn’t really know what to say, glowing eyes? That was new. She touched her neck remembering the pain of the electricity, the collar was still there. Fidah shuddered at the memory and then registered the sound of metal on metal, looking down at her hands, she registered another collar on her wrist, bright yellow with a red square on it. She examined it pulling up the sleeve of the overall, trying to pull it this way and that. She could feel something was jabbing into her wrist a needle maybe. Was that what was in her neck? The pain certainly felt the same. What about the young man? Where was he? She’d struck out because…because of him. She wasn’t really sure why, he hadn’t been frightened when she’d told him about her powers as so many others had been. In this place, in that moment, that had been enough for her to want to protect him

_“Yeah you’ve got a second , the guards must be terrified of you”_

Remi said disturbing her thoughts. Fidah pulled the sleeve back down and folded her arms. What she didn’t need was more attention.

_“I don’t really know what happened, my powers have never been exactly stable. I mean um, maybe something was wrong this fucking thing”_

Fidah gestured to the collar around her neck.

 _“That’s not an answer.”_ The man who had pushed her initially said getting up

_“I haven’t got any other to give you.”_

Fidah responded looking at him, he was huge towering over her. He moved close towards her

_“People died in that riot, they burned to death because you decided to kick up a fuss.”_

_“I I I didn’t mean to get anyone hurt..I just reacted.”_

Fidah responded, she wanted her powers back, she would push this guy away, she’d push them all away.Again, Remi leapt in to calm him down

 _“Kurt stop…threatening isn’t going to help. Calm down, listen to me, keep calm”_ Remi said murmuring in his ear, she put a hand on his chest and gently pushed him back, he grunted and sat on the floor.

_“Look kid, Kurt is…an acquired taste, but he’s right. You did start a riot and a lot of us died, why did you even do it? For that monster, the freak who never talks, who attacks people? You started a riot to protect him?”_

_“That’s what you call him, the monster? He didn’t say anything to me, he didn’t attack me either. He was I don’t know nice…I guess. Why is he a monster?”_ Fidah asked

This time it was Remi’s turn to snigger

_“Have you seen his face? I mean, those scars, he was in some kind of accident apparently that he caused. It wrecked his face and everywhere else , that’s how he ended up here, in this hole, they found him because of the explosion.”_

_“And where is here? Exactly?”_ Fidah said

 _“You have been assigned to work for the mighty Essex Corporation, supplier to government’s, NGOs, corrupt businessmen and other honourable men like that.”_ Remi said with great fanfare

_“Uh okay…you mean governments know about this place?”_

_“Mutants are free labour here, normal people wouldn’t survive. We’re special.”_ Remi said sarcastically

_“Have no one ever tried to leave? To escape?”_

_“Of course they have!”_ Kurt snapped from the floor " _They’ve all died or worse!”_

This vague and overly dramatic sounding statement produced a look of horror from Fidah. Although Kurt didn’t go into details, Fidah could work out enough to guess. She’d had nightmares about that kind of thing, her parents had too, that’s why they’d always insisted she kept her powers a secret for fear...for fear of what people might do to her if they found out

After that they seem to be done talking, Remi sat down by Kurt and stared into space. They were flanked by four rickety metal bunk beds and concrete walls . There was a heavy metal door with no obvious lock in the right hand corner of the wall Fidah leaned on. The other duo came forward at one point, just to change positions. He was blonde, stubble covered his face. He and looked very young. He was unhealthy skinny like so many others she’d seen there. She had a mass of long brown hair that went down her waist. Fidah sat herself down leaning against the wall and tried to think. They for whatever reason didn’t strike her as so fearsome as Remi and Kurt.

She didn’t get far; guards interrupted her exhausted brain. The metal door clanked open. . Remi and Kurt pushed themselves into the wall trying to disappear and the other couple just held each other tighter. The guards were all holding what looked like souped up cattle prods and pushed them out into the corridor. Other guards were outside doing a similar trick to other groups. Although there were less than Fidah expected considering the number of doors in the corridor. That day she and her new room mates were taken to a new section of the mine. Higher up Fidah thought, the air seemed less dense, less constricting. But the task was the same, put the black rocks into the boxes and then other mutants dragged them away. She watched Kurt and Remi, they had to be lovers, they way they stood next to each other. Whenever one of them fell, the other was there to pick them up. Fidah felt a stab of envy when she saw them hold hands, something she’d never really had outside her own family. 

Fidah did her best to put it out of her mind and worked, bringing the pick axe down again and again. The hours wore on, her muscles ached horribly, but she managed to keep standing though. Occasionally she heard little bits of chatter in the lines of people as the guards patrolled back and forth along the shaft. In the latter part of the afternoon or evening, Fidah didn’t really know something broke the boredom. One of the workers slipped similar to Fidah the previous day. A crowd gathered around the worker, eager to see what had happened, the guards fortunately were not there. They were all at the other of the mine shaft, sleeping or taking breaks. Fidah raced over and pushed her way through the crowd, it was the woman from the cell and her partner.

“ _Shhh, be quiet, the guards will hear you…I know it hurts”_

He was murmuring in her ear. The young woman was desperately trying not to cry out. Fidah looked at her, in heap on the floor, her foot was horribly twisted. She knelt down next to her, all eyes were on her. The couple moved away from her on instinct

 _“Please leave us alone, we don’t want any trouble”_ the man said clutching his partner

Fidah held up her hands, trying to look as not threatening as possible

_“I don’t want to hurt you, I promise...I might be able to help.”_

Fidah said, that was pushing it, she thought. She didn’t know what she could do, but she wanted to try and help. She gestured towards the woman’s leg, she nodded at her. Carefully she pulled up the trouser leg of the woman’s overall, her leg was turning a horrible colour and was probably broken. Fidah paused took a deep breath and very gently laid her hand on the leg. If her powers could come when she was filled with rage, maybe she could summon them now. Nothing happened initially, the young man glared at her, she offered up a small prayer to whoever might be listening and then she felt it, the blue sparks, barely there, but moving, coming out of her fingers. Fidah focused her mind, her brain on the woman, she could feel the woman, her bones, she could feel the broken bits in her leg. She focused on that, gently willing the bones back into place. It must have been agony for the woman, Fidah could feel the now two collars she was wearing humming, the electricity building in her neck and her wrist, she fought against the pain as best she could. Her nose started to bleed again and she gritted her teeth, she couldn’t leave this woman with a half broken leg and then suddenly it was over. The small crowd of workers watched, how was this even possible?

Fidah moved away slightly shaken stretching out her fingers. She wiped way the blood from her nose

_“She should be able to walk now.”_

The woman stared at her leg, her partner helped her up, there was still some pain there. But she could walk. Neither of them could believe it

 _“Thank you I...thank you.”_ The woman murmured still leaning on her partner

 _“Yes truly, I what did you do?”_ He said

Fidah didn’t get a chance to answer as the guards walked back, the crowd immediately parted revealing the trio. The three of them got up off the floor at speed, the man let go of his partner and the woman put her leg down, grimacing slightly as her leg was still bruised, but the break was gone. Fidah smiled at her and turned away ready to go back to her place in the line. The woman stopped her, putting her hand on her shoulder, Fidah repressed a shudder, she still wasn’t used to people touching her and it not going terribly wrong.

 _“You can stand with us, I’m Skye, he’s Lincoln.”_ She said gesturing to the man next to her.

The three of them stood together for hours on end, saying very little. The guards had worked out something had happened, but arrived too late to see it. The consequence was they patrolled the line more closely, although they didn’t notice Fidah moving positions next to Skye and Lincoln. The day such as it was came to and end and they were all pushed back towards the cell. Remi and Kurt retreated to a bunk bed refusing to speak to her. Skye sat on the bed and Lincoln leaned against the wall gesturing for her to sit down next to him.

 _“What you did back there, it was…amazing. I mean, how can you resist the collar?”_ he asked immediately

Fidah smiled entertained by his shameless questioning approach

 _“You don’t quite realise it, but the broken leg. I mean if the guards had found, had seen, I’d be dead.”_ Skye added

_“I don’t really know what happened. I’m glad I could help.”_

_“Thank you so much for saving me.”_

Skye moved forward to grasp her hand and Fidah flinched out of habit.

_“Why do you do that?”_

_“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to.”_

The two of them looked at her for an explanation. She repeated a slightly less garbled version of what she had told the mysterious young man they all called the monster.

_“So you really can’t touch anyone?”_

_“Not outside my own family, nope.”_

_“What about ordinary people? I mean is that like worse?”_

_“I um…yes and no, when it happened to me when I was kid I just used to knock them out. But with mutants, that was the big problem. Every time I held onto them, I’d get like this flash of memories or there power and I couldn’t control it.”_

_“But what about the healing thing? How did you fix my leg?”_

_“I think it’s all related, I’m telepathic and telekinetic so it’s like I’m willing the matter back together. That was how my mom used to explain it to me.”_

_“Sounds horrible”_

_“It’s not fun”_

_“What about you guys?”_

_“I can manipulate electricity”_

_“That sounds super cool”_

Lincoln snorted at Fidah’s childlike response

_“I can move the earth, well”_

_“Move the earth? That sounds kind of terrifying.”_

_“People used to call me quake, I can generate vibrations and shields. I guess my powers are kind similar to yours.”_

_“They sound amazing!”_

Their whispering continued on into the early hours. Lincoln and Skye described how they met, how they had worked for the government, but decided to strike out on their own. Being captured in the middle of the night and dragged away, Fidah’s own experience had been similar. It was cold and terrifying in their box, but they gave each other comfort. Skye was touched by Fidah’s relative innocence and Lincoln thought she was funny. When they eventually all feel asleep Skye insisted that Fidah have her bunk. She climbed on to the top next to Lincoln saying they’d be fine. On some level they wanted to protect Fidah, she seemed sweet and basically nice. She hadn’t been warped by the mine and that appealed to the couple. Fidah was happy beyond belief to find people that weren’t terrified of her, they wanted to watch out for her.

**

While Fidah lucked out finding some allies (potentially friends). Alex was dragged away to the medical bay of the corporation once again. After they stopped him bleeding to death (the guards had done their best to kill him) and a few days to recover (so he didn’t die immediately afterwards). Alex found himself tied to a metal table again with the ever present and repugnant Dr Martin looking down at him. The doctor was was fascinated by the reaction the girl had produced in Alex. After years of monitoring Alex and getting nothing out of him, someone apparently random had manged to make him virtually lose his mind. Maybe they knew each other?

_“That was quite the performance you gave us. Three of the soldiers you attacked almost died.”_

The world would have been a better place without them Alex thought bitterly. All the men who guarded the mine was violent animals who liked tormenting people. However he didn’t utter a word. He knew this routine well. He shut his eyes again breathing in and out, bracing himself for what was about to come.

 _“I always think our talks go better when you speak to me, it’s much more of a conversation, much more an exchange.”_ Dr Martin said smiling down at him (ignoring the fact that A Alex hadn’t spoken to him in years and B that his eyes were shut)

_“This woman, that caused you to fight, who is she? Do you know who she is? What she is? What her powers are?”_

Alex gulped and said nothing, breathing in and out, breathing in and out

_“Come on, you must know something about her. No one reacts like that for someone they don’t know. Who is she? What is she to you?”_

Alex said nothing. His whole body was starting to tense, he knew the pain was coming. Just get over and done with he thought it.

_“Come on talk worker 218 (Alex had never given up his name to Martin). It’ll be easier for you. If you give her up I can make your stay in this place a lot more pleasant. You’ve had a hard time up to this point.”_

Alex fumed and who’s fault is that he thought, he wriggled in the restraints. Dr Martin sighed

_“So be it. I tried to give you an option out of this, but decided to be stubborn, so typical of your species.”_

Dr Martin gestured to the assistants who seemingly appeared out of nowhere. Alex felt needles going into his skin, maybe three in each arm. He felt the ever-present collar around his neck tightening and the needle that lived permanently in the back of his neck burrowing deeper. He still shuddered when a whole series of unknown hands touched him and prodded him. This had happened to him so often in the last decade he didn’t need to open his eyes. All he would see were masked faces. He clenched his hands into fists. An assistant came over and slipped a mask over his face. Alex registered his awareness fading and then he fell into a drug-induced sleep. The assistants had what can perhaps be described as more of a focus this time. When they took their blood and tissue samples from his neck and his hands and his chest they were really looking for signs of the other mutant. The fact that Alex and Fidah had barely touched escaped their notice.

Martin was frustrated and excited by this new development in about equal measure. Worker 218 was one of the most powerful mutants he had ever seen, and he’d never managed to break him. He’d never managed to manipulate him in the way that he had with so many others; hell, he’d never even given up his name. The most powerful reaction was listening to the boy scream or threatening his brother. The fact that Martin didn’t actually know who his brother was didn’t matter, it was the worker’s one connection to the outside world and that was the key. However, this girl had provoked a reaction in him, had made him fight! Maybe she’d be able to get through to him, that was the answer. Martin looked down at Alex again, still under the knife and gestured for the various assistants and medical people to go away. He had a moment of twisted inspiration. He moved towards one of the walls and found a phone and made a call to one of the many security people that worked for the corporation gesturing frantically with his hands. After that he called the medical staff back in and told them to finish up as fast as possible. So, they sewed up Alex again. His bandages from the injuries from the riot were changed, he was washed and given a change of clothes. Later on the medical staff handed him barely awake over to the guards and he was then dragged along the corridors to yet another section of the mine. It was another set of prison cells. But some decision had been made higher up to save on the space so the workers had been crammed in far close to the mine. Martin had occasionally used the rooms for his “experiments” and “research” but that was it.

The guards pulled open one of the doors and threw Alex inside onto the cold stone floor, he groaned as his body made contact. But the men just laughed and locked the door behind him. Alex was left in the room for days. He was fed and watered but was not made to work. He slept as far as he could do on the cold stone bench. He paced around the tiny cell and got bored. He didn’t understand why he had been given a reprieve and was worried. He thought he was going to have to pay a horrible price at some point. Alex found his mind drifting back to his old life. Despite the craziness of the X-men and the incident Cuba and being drafted, he’d finished high school and managed to score a place at NYU. His major had been marine biology. It had been a bizarre logic, but being under water had made him feel peaceful. His powers seemed less frightening. He was good at it too, he’d been good at biology at least. The chemistry aspect had been a nightmare, but he’d persevered. Studying gave him normality and a chance at a regular life. The war had interrupted that of course and for whatever reason his mutant ability stopped him from escaping the draft (something he’d desperately wanted to do).

But when he came back, he took his diploma and sparkling grades and applied. NYU had accepted him with open arms. Alex had revelled in New York and college life. It also allowed him to be close to the x-mansion if he needed and keep an eye on his brother. But Scott had largely been fine, his foster parents were nice (Alex had not been so lucky). His little brother’s life was very ordinary and Alex was relieved. He was convinced that his own messed up genes had passed his brother by, but of course he’d been wrong. He hadn’t even been in the country when Scott’s powers manifested, he’d been in South America on one of his first research trips. But a panicked phone call from his brother meant he’d dropped everything and returned.

Alex came back and found a very scared set of foster parents and a brother was terrified and deeply ashamed. So he’d made a phone call and spoken to Hank. McCoy had understood and promised to help and then…well it had all gone to hell. He wondered what Scott might have been like had he survived, what college he could of gone too, whether he would be married. He thought of the mansion and his friends, he remembered laughing and smiling.

He remembered bad things too. The poison of Vietnam still haunted him years on. Bodies and blood, mud and stench all filtered back into his brain. He would shake his head trying to push the memories away. There was no point thinking of them, he couldn’t go back to that life, he’d destroyed it. He’d fucked up and wrecked the only good things he’d ever had. This hell he’d live for the last however many years, how long had been here? This hell was his punishment and he deserved it. This tangled cycle of thoughts spun around in Alex’s head as the days went by. He found himself crawling into a small ball in the middle of the floor, looking at the lines of the cell, he saw that on one side there was a small grate, a hole basically for letting sewage out ? or blood? Alex thought darkly. He thought he would go mad or madder down there, maybe that was the aim to drive what was left of his sanity away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More re-writing! I've pushed a great deal more into the chapter this time round. My other aim was to try and develop Skye and Lincoln (as well as Remi and Kurt) a bit more as characters. I felt that they were only sketches initially and wanted them to be more fully formed. 
> 
> When I first wrote this I had discovered Marvel's Agents of Shield and went on a little binge. I thought Skye/Lincoln were a sweet duo so I've put them in here. This is not a direct cross-over by any means, but I wanted these two love birds because they were my favs from the series. The same logic applies with Remi and Kurt, they come from Blindspot. I've tried to keep the essence of the characters while making a few alterations for my own purposes. 
> 
> I also decided to use this chapter to try and fill in a bit more about who everyone was including Alex. Let me know if there is too much description/too much information or any other issues.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So re-write number 5 or 6 I guess? I'm losing track a bit. Anyway I've tried to develop Fidah's relationship a bit more with Lincoln as well having her interact with Alex for the first time. 
> 
> Let me know what you think!

Skye, Lincoln and Fidah became a strange little trio in the weeks that followed. They always stood together in the lines, whenever they were able. When they all were fed (although the calling the gruel the guards pushed towards them while they worked was generous) they tried to pool their resources too so they all went slightly less hungry. Lincoln and Skye protected Fidah when she flinched away from people. Fidah did her best to entertain the couple by telling them stories while they worked, they were always whispered under her breath. But she never stopped, elaborate tales of knights fighting villains or spaceships in a world far away, her capacity to spin stories seemed endless.

Lincoln even got to return the favour, saving Fidah’s life when she slipped. As well of tunnels, the mine had dozens of pits and closed off holes from previous of bits work. They had all be assigned to work near one. The hole was vast and took up most of the space they were working in. They still had to pull rocks out of the walls and drop them into carts without enough space to do it. Fidah swung the axe too hard and fell backwards screaming. He was the first one over there, she’d managed to grab the edge and was hanging on crying. Lincoln lent down and stretched his hand out

_“Skye watch the entrance for guards! Come on Fidah, take my hand”_

_“I can’t, I can’t…I can’t…”_

_“Fi, it’s okay” (he’d taken to calling her Fi)_

_“I’ll slip, I’ll hurt you, I’m going to die.”_

At that point her hands did start to slip and Lincoln leaned forward. He used his other hand to grip the axe still buried in the wall and he stretched out. He grabbed Fidah’s wrists and pulled her forward back onto solid ground. Then she was in his arms, hyperventilating but safe.

 _“Psst guys!”_ Skye whispered from the entrance

They immediately broke apart as guards came forward poking their heads around. The only hint of a problem was Fidah’s hyperventilating which echoed in the quiet. When they were all back in their cells and Skye was sleeping soundly above them Lincoln moved to sit next to Fidah.

_“You wanna tell what that was today?”_

_“I..um thanks for saving my life. I guess I just panicked”_

_“I’ve seen you attack the guards and take a cattle prod to the back to protect someone.”_

_“What’s your point?”_

_“That was something else, I’m just curious what it was.”_

_“Fine, It was when I was a kid….I…I just fell down a manhole. The school kids that were there…they just left me. They teased me…calling me freak and…I just panicked...I was stuck there for hours. Eventually I managed to craw out, but after that…just everything got worse.”_

Lincoln eyeballed Fidah, he suspected he was not getting the whole story. But he didn’t want to push

_“People are shitty sometimes Fidah, but know that Skye and I, we aren’t going to abandon you, you’re our friend, the closest thing to family we’ve got.”_

Fidah smiled at him

_“Hell if you’re a freak, so are we.”_

She laughed quietly to herself.

_“I remember when my powers first came, it was…god I nearly burned the school down I was in. I thought I would electrocute people just by touching them.”_

_“What did you do?”_

_“I learnt to control them, this tiny world we’re in at the moment. It’s garbage, a hell hole, but we’ll escape. Our powers outside are a gift.”_

_“I’m glad you think so.”_

_“I’m still working on the escape plan”_

Fidah snorted with amusement and Lincoln gently wrapped his arm around her and she fell asleep next to him. The days passed or as far as they could tell they did. The three learnt more about each other; school and family and stories of childhood (that weren’t so scaring as Fidah’s). It was bittersweet because although it kept them distracted, there was a kind of ache inside where each of them wanted to get out and keep living. Remi and Kurt kept away from her, they clearly still didn’t trust her. Kurt had not forgiven her for the deaths she caused and Remi just stared at her periodically. They built a dodgy kind of truce as they all tried to keep going.

This relative stability was shattered after two months, when the guards appeared when they were all being summoned to work. As they filed out and into the lines, two guards came and grabbed Fidah. She screamed and swore, but they still dragged her away. Skye and Lincoln tried to stop them demanding what she was supposed to have done. But Skye got her neck half crushed and Lincoln got his nose broken. Remi and Kurt looked on smiling. Lincoln caught the look but didn’t react (the blood pouring out of his nose did distract him). When the day ended Lincoln attacked Kurt, you pushed up against the wall to try and break his neck

_“You sold her out didn’t you? What did you tell the guards?”_

_Kurt rasped at him but didn’t lose the sneer_

_“What the fuck did you tell them?”_

_“Oh nothing…just that she was planning an escape…she was…causing trouble”_

_“What ? Why?”_

_“I heard you talking and her…she’s trouble. She’ll cause more pain, more death, just like when she arrived.”_

Lincoln dropped Kurt to the floor with clatter and swore.

_“She’s a fucking kid! She’s like us! What have you achieved? You’re a pig, nothing but god damn pig”_

_“That freak is not like us, she’s going to cause nothing but trouble.”_

Lincoln slammed his fists into the wall, Skye put her around him and spoke quietly in his ear. She was furious too, but she had the good sense to try and stay calm. Revenge on Kurt could come later, now they had to wait and see to try and work out if Fidah was even still alive.

**

While her friends raged Fidah was dragged away from the mines to a new and frightening part of the facility. The abandoned stone rooms where Alex had been spending his time had a ghostly quality to them and Fidah was determined not to be stuck there. So she kept kicking and screaming and fighting. Alex was asleep in his cell, his arms wrapped around him for warmth, when heard a loud crash in the cell next to him and a stream of curses

 _“Fuck...fuck…Fuck”_ and then a groan, a female groan

Fidah lay on her back, trying not to move, the guards had thrown her in there with not much regard for her health (hardly a shocker), but she didn’t want to add any extra damage to her body. So she just sprawled on the cold open floor. Alex moved in the cell next to her and lay flat on the floor looking through the grate, there she was, a white face and a sprawl on long hair. She turned and registered him

_“Oh hello, nice to know I’m not alone in this crap hole I guess.”_

Alex was shocked, it was Fidah, so she was alive. He had no idea what had happened after the riot, he’d been kept away from all the other prisoners, some small part of him was relieved she wasn’t dead.

 _“Talkative soul aren’t you_?” Fidah called

Still Alex said nothing, he got up and paced about so then all Fidah could see were a set of dull grey boots going back and forth

_“Fine, I can talk, I’m Fidah...what’s yours ?”_

Still nothing

_“What did you do to get thrown in here? I might have picked a tiny fight with one of the guards. He pulled me away from well…he was taking me in a direction I most definitely did not want to go and yeah…well I’m sure I’ve got another broken bone somewhere.”_

Alex so desperately wanted to say something, but he was frightened, he didn’t even really know where to start. Fidah seemingly undeterred continued on

 _“I wonder which part of the facility we’re in, I’ve never seen this before. Do you know if anyone else is around here? It sounded very quiet when the guards brought me here. You know you’re going to have to talk eventually, it would just save your ears a bit of time. I wonder if there are any guards nearby? Or do they not even come down here? Hey fuckwits???? ”_ she yelled the last part gleefully

Alex grimaced, but the guards didn’t answer her. He smiled in spite of herself.

_“Guess they’re not here, that’s good in a way, I mean who wants to talk to morons? I’d love to have an intelligent conversation with someone, not that all the prisoners aren’t nice, but I don’t know, I’d love to discuss something anything…okay so I’m into nonsensical rambling at this stage. I’m going to pause…”_

Fidah did take a pause for breath but groaned. Alex responded without thinking

_“Are you alright?”_

_“He speaks!”_

_“Well are you?”_

_“I think two of my ribs might be cracked, but that’s nothing new…Come on tell me what’s your name??”_

Alex paused again, he had buried his name for so long. What if the guards heard? What if Martin heard?

_“You were doing so well…”_

_“It’s Alex”_ his voice cracked slightly, it’d been a long time since he’d even said it. It felt very odd introducing himself to someone.

_“Well it’s nice to meet you Alex, do you mind sitting on the floor, not that your feet aren’t fascinating. But I’d like to be able to look at least a tiny bit of your face.”_

Alex obliged and laid himself down on the floor and did his best to match Fidah, he figured that through the grating she wouldn’t be able to see the scars on his face and that would be okay. Fidah looked at him, she couldn’t see much of him, but it was better than his feet, she made out a set of blue eyes and a mess of long hair, it showed in a way how long he’d been here. His face...was well it looked kind and it was also familiar…

 _“That’s better, I hope you can see mine. I don’t like at my best I’ll admit, but I figure at least you can see me talking kind of. It’s to meet you..”_ Fidah stretched out her hand to the grate in a vague imitation of a kind of handshake, Alex grinned and responded, their fingertips touched as there was a strange spark between them. Neither of them said anything, but they didn’t move their fingers either.

 _“Nice to meet you too Fidah.”_ Alex said for the second time.

So the two started to talk, well talk is a relative term. Fidah rambled and Alex listened to her, she spoke a little about the other prisoners and how kind they were to her and terrifying, how one of them had almost beaten the crap out of her, how shitty the food was. But you know she was happy not to starve. She also talked about trying to work out where everything was in the place, so as not to get lost. The horror of the collars and how much she missed her powers even though they were horribly complicated. Alex was struck by the shift in her, she didn’t seem so ashamed of her powers, they were just part of her. He wondered what had produced that or who.

 _“What could you do before?? Before all this”_ she asked

_“Why? It’s not like I can do it anymore.”_

_“Just making conversation, if you’ve got another topic, feel free. I’m bored and cold and I want distracting.”_

_“Fine.. I II could shoot red light out of bits of me…but it destroyed things, I couldn’t control it.”_ Alex trailed off

_“Red light cool….sounds very Star Wars…mine had their issues too. I mean every time I touched someone I’d get this like weird flash of their memories or thoughts, I couldn’t control it either…it was horrible. Half the time in this place…I keep expecting it to happen again. It’s weird..I”_

So that was it, Alex thought, he remembered the first conversation he’d had with her and her garbled explanation of why she flinched, it sounded a horrific power to possess.

_“Sounds like it sucks.”_

_“It wasn’t all bad, I could move things with my mind which was pretty cool. I mean I can do that still, if it wasn’t for this stupid fucking thing.”_ She pulled at the collar round her neck in frustration

_“There’s no point in thinking about it. It does no good.”_

_“How can you be so okay with all this?”_

_“I’ve been here too long, there’s no point in fighting it.”_

_“That’s a stupid logic.”_

_“It’s kept me alive.”_

Fidah grunted at this, she removed her hand from the grate and turned her back to Alex, she wanted to cry so much, everything hurt and the few friends she had, they been yanked away from her. Were Skye and Lincoln even alive? But none of this was this guy’s fault…so..

 _“How long?”_ Fidah said, still not turning around

_“What?”_

_“How long have you been here?”_

_“I don’t know…what year is it?”_

_“You don’t even know that?”_ Fidah turned around again and pushed herself towards the grate, she placed her had fully onto it.

_“I mean, when I was taken, it was the summer of 92, I’ve been here a while, so I guess it’s still 1992??”_

_“It’s nine years then.”_

_“My God Alex…I had no idea. III I’m so sorry.”_

Alex just grunted, it was a simple fact, he didn’t really think about it these days.

_“Do you remember how you got here?”_

Alex paused, he did remember it clearly now, but he couldn’t, wouldn’t say…he was enjoying having someone to talk too someone much. He couldn’t ruin it that just yet

_“I don’t really not after all this time…do you remember what happened to you?”_

_“Sort of…I think I know why I ended up here. But I don’t remember a lot, I remember my apartment and men in black and starting to scream, and things breaking around me. After that I woke up in the back of a truck dressed in a slightly less dirty version of what I’ve got on currently. There were a lot of drugs and men in green and I think maybe a hospital or something medical. I remember the entrance to this place, being pulled to it was the first time I’d seen any light in days. It’s all a bit garbled.”_

Fidah stopped talking, she kept her hand on the grate, Alex shifted again to press his hand into hers. He couldn’t really understand why he was doing that, it just felt…nice to touch someone and to not been seen as scary and horrible or a lab experiment. He’d missed that feeling more than he wanted to admit. She smiled at him or her best approximation of a smile through the metal

 _“Sorry I snapped.”_ She said simply

_“It doesn’t bother me, you’re the first conversation I’ve had in a long time.”_

_“I’m honoured.”_

_“Don’t be, I’m just….what’s that phrase you said? Saving my ears.”_

Fidah giggled and it turned into an oww, Alex pressed his hand forward to her as close as the metal would allow. After that, they just lay there for a while not really saying anything. They were as content as they could be given the circumstances. Alex felt a strange warmth inside of him, this strange woman with her sprawling speeches and rambling seemed nice and kind. She actually wanted to talk to him! She wasn’t frightened of him at all, he couldn’t quite believe it. The bitter angry part of his brain reminded him that if she made the connection between the person she was talking to now and the monster she had seen initially that would all change, but he couldn’t think about that now. The end would come for this, but he would enjoy it while it lasted. Fidah who clearly wasn’t a huge fan of silence spoke again

_“So…what’s your favourite movie?”_

_“What?”_

_“You know, a talking picture?”_ She responded sarcastically

_“I know what a movie is.”_

_“Okay well what’s your favourite one?”_

_“Why are you even asking?”_

_“Because I want to think something about other than this shit hole we’re in.”_

Alex groaned, he was getting cold lying on this floor.

 _“What was the last movie you saw?”_ Fidah persisted

_“I don’t remember.”_

_“Fine..”_

Alex decided at that point to get up, he was freezing, he started to pace again, rubbing his shivering arms. Fidah pulled herself up as well and shifted her position on the floor. There was now an awkward uncomfortable silence between them. This time it was Alex that broke it

_“It was Risky Business…”_

Fidah snorted..

_“That cheesy thing with Tom Cruise in it?”_

She giggled again, her laughter continued on, it was a hollow laugh and uncomfortable, but she couldn’t control it

_“Hey that was a great movie, Tom Cruise was cool! Anyway it was my brother that wanted to see it and well he dragged me along.”_

Fidah managed to swallow her giggles

_“Fair enough…he he he.”_

_“What about you?”_

_“What about me?”_

_“What about what was the last movie you saw?”_

_“Oh…um mine was Batman Returns.”_

_“They made a Batman movie?”_

_“Yeah, it was awesome.”_

So the conversation between the two of them resumed once again, Fidah went into excessive detail about the Batman comics, Alex responded, he’d loved comics when was young so he actually knew something about them. She described her favourites bits from the movies, Alex quizzed her relentlessly about both films getting her to talk about every part of the plot, every scene she could remember, he shut his eyes at one point as if to try and see it. While they talked, Dr Martin watched them, ecstatic the cameras he had installed showed him everything. His plan was working, soon he’d be able to break them both.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Is this a believable scene? Are the interactions realistic/working? I'd like these two to be a convincing duo, if something really feels off, please tell me :D
> 
> Was the Lincoln scene unnecessary? I guess I wanted her to a bit more of a connection with the rest of them rather than just Alex? Let me know what you think!!


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Okay so a new update on this story finally. I was a bit unsure of this chapter, I'm never a big fan of whumping women just because I think it's an overly used plot device. But at the same time I did want to show a bit of what Fidah goes through as well. I hope it doesn't come across too voyeuristic or anything? 
> 
> Alex and Fidah connect further in this part and escape plan is kind of formed. Do they have a believable connection do you reckon? I worry a bit that it's all come a bit too fast. Thoughts and feedback appreciated.

Fidah and Alex talked for what felt like hours, back-to-back. Alex found a huge novelty in having an actual conversation with someone with the protection of a stone wall between them. Fidah was just happy to find a new person to speak too and she felt sorry for him, the idea of almost a decade in this darkness was unimaginable to her and the fact that he maintained any semblance of self was remarkable. Eventually they both fell asleep exhausted in their cells, although they both shifted position so they lay on the stone floor parallel to each other rather than the ‘beds’ they had been given ( a stone shelf). Neither of them wanted to acknowledge it, but even after only a few hours they felt close to each other. In another life it would have been the perfect sort of conversation to have over a drink or on a first date. This peace lasted through the night, but then the guards came in the morning and dragged Fidah to her feet. She was woken from her freezing sleep by a kick to the ribs, blood came out unsurprisingly. She fought hard elbowing one of the guards in the face, but that just earned her punch to the stomach. All the noise woke Alex too, he screamed her name and punched at the stone walls and door as they dragged her away, he threatened the guards, pleaded with them to take him instead as they dragged her unconscious body away. Alex heard their laughter as they passed, and he felt the collar around his neck tightening and the needle somehow burying still deeper into his neck. He screamed as the pain shot down his back, he clawed at the collar in frustration and his nose started to bleed. Once the pain became too much, he stopped yelling, instead he tucked himself into a ball on the floor and shut his eyes and waited for it to dissipate, but also for the guards to come for him.

They didn’t come for him at all, other than the food and water. As that came Alex made another plea almost without thinking, he got the same response laughter and the slit of the door being slammed onto his hands. As the hours passed Alex paced the tiny cell, panicking about his newly found friend. It was a strange feeling for him, caring about someone he barely knew, the rational bit of his mind was telling him to forget about her and not react, that was the key to staying alive, that they were using her against him. But Alex wasn’t in the mood to listen to that part of his mind, Fidah was important, she was hope, she was…redemption. But perhaps most of all, she seemed nice and kind and didn’t deserve to die in this place and Alex had decided he would do anything to stop that happening.

Fidah came back late in the night, the guards unceremoniously tossing her into the cell and she cried out. Alex was instantly at the hole in the wall

_“Fidah..I..are you? How badly are you hurt?”_

He heard her start to cry

_“Fidah…say something. I know you must be scared…say something. You’re still here, whatever they…did to you…you’re still alive.”_

Alex tried to offer words of comfort to her, anything to make her stop crying. He so badly wanted to reach out and hug her. All he could do was lay himself flat on the floor of the cell and push his hand up to the grate. Fidah heard Alex’s voice and a bit of her felt better, her whole body was shaking, the feelings, sensations of everything they had done to her still fresh in her head. The day replaying out in her mind. The little stunt that had caused the riot had finally come back to haunt her. After grabbing her in the morning and punching her so hard in the stomach that she almost passed out. the guards had taken her on a winding path back to a set of elevators she’d seen the previous day. Up she went through multiple floors, she had the satisfaction of aiming her next coughing fit onto one of the guards boots. The guard was furious, but by then they had arrived on the right floor and a man in a white coat appeared smiling to greet them.

_“Ahh our little trouble maker! Quite the display you put on for us all those weeks ago. Truly remarkable, fancy tell us how you did it?”_

Fidah determinedly stared at the floor

_“So anti-social, just like your friend?? Hhmm?” Friend? Fidah thought? Did he mean Alex?_

_“Well we’ll have to make you talk, or we can figure it out for ourselves.”_ At that point, the man in the white coat gestured for the guards to follow him. She was pulled forward into a corridor that wouldn’t have looked out of place in a hospital. A creamy white door was opened revealing a long metal table. The guards pushed her forward and pulled the top half of her overalls down and her boots. Her hands went to cover her chest, but they yanked them back out and pulled her onto the table and tied her down, face first. Fidah resisted as best she could, but her powers refused to come to her, instead she got a series of electric shocks. She fidgeted and twisted, but couldn’t get herself out. Over the next few hours, the man in the white coat took blood samples from Fidah, from her back, from her hands. He injected something into her spin, they gave her electric shocks, sliced at her skin. She wept as it took place, they put something into the back of her neck through her collar and she eventually faded out. Once she was out the experiments continued, they turned her onto her front and examined her, taking a skin sample from her stomach and arms all in the ‘pursuit’ of ‘science’ to try and understand how she had resisted the collar. All these little bits of her were carefully labelled and put onto shelves. When it was all over the guards dressed her again and took her away. 

She was returned to the same cold stone box that she had been in the previous night and started to cry. But then Alex’s voice came through the grate trying to comfort her, funny how fast friendships form she thought. After a few minutes Fidah stopped snivelling and turned around, she could just about make out Alex through the grate, offering up his hand, she shuffled herself forward and offered up hers. They could touch each other even through the metal, they felt the same strange electric current they had the first night. This time Alex started to talk, he spoke about when he and Scott had built a treehouse when there were kids and how Scott had broken his arm a week after they finished. So the conversation began again; this time it was in fits and starts and Fidah managed to push her pain to the back of her mind. This horrible routine was repeated in the following days, the next time Alex was taken, he came back a shivering mess, then it was Fidah and then it was Alex. All the while Dr Martin watched and waited. The two figures clung to each other as best they could during the night time hours, holding onto mostly hope that they’d both survive another day. After a month of this hell, the doc made his first approach to Fidah

 _“You know, I could make all this stop.”_ He said one day while she was lying on the table, while another doctor cut a line in her stomach

Fidah bit her cheek, fighting the pain. She also stared resolutely at the ceiling

_“All you need to do is tell me about worker 218.”_

Fidah’s eyes widened, did he mean Alex?

_“Yes I know about him. I see you talk to each other. He clearly speaks to you; we just want to understand him. He’s been here a long time and he’s never spoken to anyone the way he talks to you.”_

For a moment Fidah was tempted, she spent so much of her time in pain, cold, shaking or angry, the idea of making this all go away was deeply appealing to her. But then she thought of Alex with his blue eyes and his laugh and his hands that she’d like to hold, and the temptation was gone.

_“What…do you want to know about him?”_

Dr Martin couldn’t hide his glee.

_“Everything…tell me everything little one.”_

_“Can you let my head up?”_

Martin eagerly undid the restraints around her neck and Fidah strained her neck up. The doctor leaned in close. And Fidah slammed her head into him as hard as she could, she fell back immediately very dizzy and the collar shooting pain into her neck. Martin stumbled backwards furious, his nose was bleeding, his own head ached, and he still had absolutely nothing. Angrily he gestured for the other doctors to continue and he had of moment of satisfaction when he heard Fidah scream and then pass out. Fidah came too again as they were dragging her back down to the cell, she could barely keep her eyes open, but she was awake. She tried to take in the world around her. She could see other doctors or what she presumed were doctors, she could see rooms, others like her, horrible jars with labels that looked like they housed…Fidah didn’t want to think about that. But one thing she did note in several of the rooms, the poor souls that were being torn apart didn’t have collars because…they were dead? A germ of an idea started to form in her head, true it was a horrific one, but if it worked, it meant they might be able to escape. That night she snuggled into Alex as close as she could, she told him about Martin and what had happened.. He laughed when she described the headbutt

_“What, the idea of escaping all this pain not appeal to you?”_

_“Not when I’ve got such wonderful company.”_

Alex laughed again and smiled at her. She gave him hope somehow and he was amazed that she hadn’t betrayed him where most people would have. She went onto explain that they were being watched, so their voice reduced to murmurs. She explained her plan to him and he was furious with her; it was mad, she’d die in the process! But Fidah insisted that her body could take it, she’d need to be wounded enough for them to get the collar off, once it was off, her powers would kick in and it would be fine. Alex pleaded with her to be sensible.

_“Alex, we have to try and escape, we all do. We have...to expose this place, expose it for what it is and and burn it to the ground.”_

_“Escape it’s pointless…Fidah, please try and stay alive. That’s all we can hope for.”_

_“Alex…I’m going to do this whether you back me or not. But…Alex I want…I want to escape...to be free again. Don’t you want that too?”_

_“III…I don’t have anything on the side.”_

_“Don’t you want the chance to find something new then?”_

The argument went back and forth until Alex said he would try and help as best he could. Alex stared at her through the grate and ran his hands through his hair in frustration. At this point Fidah had a startling realisation of who Alex really was, the monster who had been so kind to her when they first met and the young man who made her laugh. She couldn’t believe it had taken so long to work it out. She also wondered why Alex hadn’t told her, but he must have had his reasons, being labelled the monster. God, what a nightmare… was she wrong? Maybe she was hallucinating? No she thought, the blue eyes, the scarred hands, it had to be him. The duo settled as close together as they could and fell asleep.

The guards woke Alex the next morning as they had done so many times before. Dr Martin poked and prodded him again, but Alex stayed silent, the memory of Fidah kept his mind focused. The prospect of an escape span around in his head again and again. Dr Martin swore at him just as he had done many times before. It was a day like any other as the guards pushed him back towards his cell, his mind was on Fidah and her plan. He was horrified when she wasn’t there, the guards picked up on his shock and started to tease him from outside

_“What?? You’re little freak friend not there with you? I wonder what could have happened to her??”_

_“You miserable fucks!! Where is she?? What the hell have you done with her?”_

_“Don’t you worry, Dr Martin take good care of. He’s taken a shine to her, he might even her make his new favourite pet. He’s getting tired of you after all this time!”_

_“I swear I’m going to kill every single one of you assholes!”_

The guards laughed off his rage, he was trapped behind stone walls and they felt very much the superior ones to the ‘braying animal’ inside. After they left, Alex stopped his screaming and yelling and waited. Fidah did not come back, she wasn’t returned the next morning either. When the guards came for Alex the next day, his rage was renewed and he fought against them hard, ignoring the shocks coming down his neck as they tussled. He was still raging by the time he was presented to Dr Martin. Martin was delighted by this new reaction

_“Where is she?? What the fuck have you done with her?”_

_“Now calm yourself, worker 218?”_

_“Where is she?”_

_“She??? Ahh you mean your friend,..yes…very sad…”_

Alex panicked and fought against the guards again, this time he managed to get away from them. He made it the door, but Martin was faster. He slammed a huge needle into Alex’s back. As Alex fell to the floor he said in his ear

_“If you want to find your friend…I believe you’ll find in jars 73 to 91. Or at least most of her.”_

_“No…no…no….no.”_


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I've now re-written this chapter too!
> 
> I've shifted the pace a lot of this section, slowed it down and sped it up in different spots. Our foursome make their escape! 
> 
> Feedback welcome

Fidah hadn’t actually been ripped apart, far from it. She had been dragged away by the guards as Alex slept. Dr Martin had decided that since he couldn’t obviously exploit their shared connection, he would try splitting them apart to see what it would do both of them, maybe he could break them that way. Alex’s reaction had suggested to him that it was working, now he had to wait and watch to see if Fidah would react the same way. The doctor had decided to return her to the general population, despite objections from many of the guards and the medical staff. He was reminded of the riot she had started, the danger she posed around other mutants. Martin wrote all these concerns off, saying that the collar was powerful enough to keep her at bay as were the drugs that were being pumped into her body.

So Fidah found herself being put back into a sea of unhappy faces who still remembered the riot and death she had caused months before. She sought out Skye and Lincoln, hoping they were still alive and not been tortured or beaten to death by the guards. They had been lucky, Fidah spotted them a few days after her arrival back amongst the workers. She’d be given a cell on her own initially, so the only time she could find them was when they were all working. She scanned the rows desperately of broken people, trying to keep out of the way of the guards. Finally she saw them on the second day, she had been put in a big group and there Skye and Lincoln were three lines away from her. But she was horrified by the change in their appearance. Lincoln had a new cut across his face and his nose had been broken at least twice and Skye looked horribly fragile and thin. Getting to talk them was also not going to be easy, the guards were patrolling more and more now and casual conversation was going to be tough. As the days passed she shifted through the lines, hiding behind people, monitoring the guards movements, trying to keep herself in the shadows of the mine. After a week of twists and turns, she finally sidled her way next to Skye and put her hand on her shoulder, Skye jumped and then dropped her pic axe, she threw her arms around the kid, Fidah gladly returned the hug

_“How are you even still alive?”_

_“Look that bad do I?”_

_“Well yeah, but we thought when you were dragged away, you’d be dead for sure. A lot of other mutants have been taken and I guess we figured…”_

At this point Lincoln leaned over

_“We thought you’d be taken away and well…we didn’t know what they do to you. We figured you’d be stored away in jars. After Kurt sold you out….”_

_“So Kurt did it? What dick, oh and thanks for the visual”_

_“So where have you been?”_

_“I got put in a solitary cell, I don’t know where it is in relation to the rest of this place. But…”_

_“So you’ve been on your own this whole time?”_

_“No…there was another guy there…his name was or is Alex.”_

Skye and Lincoln looked blankly at each other. They had no idea who she meant, there were hundreds of mutants in the mine so that wasn’t a shocker. They were also surprised that Fidah hadn’t managed to see his face, she pointed out that a tiny grill was all she had as a reference in terms of his face. Their conversation continued in whispers as they smashed away at the rocks next to them. When their shift came to an end, the guards pushed them towards the living quarters, the little cells that they were all crammed into. None of the guards seemed to notice that Fidah wasn’t part of the group, the men who watched them were of the opinion that one mutant was much like another.

To her amazement Remi and Kurt will still alive, Kurt was rather shocked to see and Fidah despite her weakened state smirked at him. She even came up as close as possible to him and gave him a poke. He didn’t react, he simply glared and shifted away from her. She snorted and settled herself on the other wall and waited. Lincoln and Skye moved onto one of the bunks and talked. As the hours passed the patrols got less. The trio reunited and began to talk again and Fidah outlined her crazy plan, Skye and Lincoln’s reaction was something very similar to Alex. They were both convinced that she would get herself killed.

 _“I can’t keep living like this.”_ Fidah said simply

When Lincoln bravely volunteered to take her place (he was the self-sacrificing kind) she pointed out his powers wouldn’t help him, whereas hers in theory at least would keep her alive. She added she wasn’t going to wait long, two days maximum and she would try it and then it would be done or it wouldn’t and that would be the end of it. Skye and Lincoln both begged her to reconsider, they thought the plan was mad and she seemed a nice kid, she shouldn’t have to die.

The next 48 hours were an agonising wait, the only reason she had decided to slow down was because her own body was so broken from all Martin’s experiments that Fidah was unsure that she would even survive a fight. But the deadline eventually came an Fidah… Well basically she produced a smaller scale version of the riot. She attacked a guard, she smashed her fist into his face, he kicked her back. She broke his nose, he snapped two of her fingers. The mutants watched from the side lines, She had made Skye and Lincoln promise not to interfere. The fight didn’t last very long, Fidah smashed the guard into a pulp, just about stopping before she killed him.

The rest of the guards ran forward on stamped on her, they smashed her ribs and wrecked one of her legs, her body was on fire, her blood went everywhere. It was ironically going very much as she had planned, she knew if she could just hold out for a little longer they would take her away and take the collar off. She felt the blackness overtaking her vision and then she was out. The guards dragged her bloodied body away up to the medical floors she had so recently escaped, her breath was ragged and going slower and slower, the doctors there didn’t think it was likely she would recover and they wondered whether it was, given the trouble she had caused. Dr Martin happened not to be there that day, otherwise he most likely would have objected and insisted that he be nursed back to health. But he wasn’t, he was away on ‘important’ business, so the decision was made to let her bleed out and dissect her as they had done with so many other mutants before her.

The body was put onto one of the filthy tables, the doctors came forward with their scalpels ready to pull her apart and put her into jars. And then the key moment came, the collar. There was no point keeping the collar on, she was going to die anyway and her body was broken, not even a freak like her could recover from those injuries. Fidah was out cold for most of this, her fight with the guards had broken her a little too well, so she might have died under other circumstances. She did not feel it when they trimmed away her overalls or pulled off her shoes, but then came the collar. They eased it off her neck, pulling the injection tool out of her neck and the metal away from her skin. The doctors held their breath, there was always a moment of panic when they did this, fear that the creatures that they tormented for so long would come back and kill them and in this case….they had been right….

As soon as the metal was off her neck and the needle out some tiny fleck of power in her body activated. Blue sparks started to emerge from her fingers spinning her arms around her and her legs, the bruises and the cuts started to fade. The injuries didn’t disappear completely, but they reduced. Fidah no longer looked quite so broken.

Her body started to shake, the doctors leapt away realising what a horrible error they had made, the guards tried to electrocute her but it was too late. Her powers were coming back to life , the room they were in got locked down as the guards tried to tackle and restrain her. Then there was one mighty blue flash and suddenly they were all on the floor, dead or knocked out. It was after this that Fidah jerked awake gasping for breath, she looked at the bodies around her, felt her hands and her arms. Everything was still there as far as she could tell. Her clothes had been cut way so she was half naked. There were bruises and cuts all over her, but everything hurt less and that horrible feeling of slowness that had been there for so long was wiped away. Her blood wasn’t so much buzzing as pumping around her veins again. She wiggled her fingers back and forth and the blue sparks came, she smiled at them. Part of her was scared to move more, but she did, she got to her feet and looked around. She stepped around the bodies and stole a set of scrubs off one of them and some shoes off another and switched off the blaring alarm (well she used her powers to smash it smithereens).

Skye and Lincoln had waited in the mine working away, frightened and tense. But then the alarm went off and they smiled at each other. They waited for the chaos to begin. The guards went mental not long afterwards, the work was cancelled for that day. The mutants were pushed back into their cells with no explanation and the majority of the soldiers disappeared to hunt ‘the fugitive’.

The “fugitive” meanwhile was looking for a command centre, a focal point. There had to be a way to turn off all the collars as a group. After searching for what felt like hours on the upper levels hiding behind pillars and in the shadows. She found what she was looking for, well sort of. It was an important looking set of panels and screens, all with readouts and flashing lights. Fidah’s escape and resurrection had meant the guards and technicians had either been called to hunt for her or ran away. She tested her newly restored powers and laid her hands on it. Blue sparks and light flew out and the circuits blew, she didn’t really know what she was doing, the aim was to cause as much panic and chaos as possible and hopefully destroy or at least disable the collars out. The aim was at least in part achieved. Down in the mines, parts of the power supply burned out, the guards communicators stopped functioning and several of the collars start to flash and burn out. The key part was the devices the guards used to keep control of the collars were destroyed too. They burned up, a strange clacking and clashing sound could be heard as multiple soldiers dropped them in turn. Some of the locks on the doors started to unlock or malfunction.

The prisoners realised something was up and fought back, the whole place went into an uproar. The mutants attacked with fists, axes, those who had their powers used them in earnest. The few remaining guards were taken out with relative ease. But more men started to return to come back to “contain the situation”. It became a blood bath. Remi and Kurt in a strange twist had their powers restored. Kurt’s fists became vast and used them like a battering ram as more and more guards came at him and Remi produced a strange kind of black smoke from her eyes that made them collapse. Skye and Lincoln were not so lucky, still they fought.

Fidah managed to escape the upper levels and find a working elevator, she dodged a lot of the fighting determined to find Skye and Lincoln. She found them tussling with two guards. A flash of blue light and the men were on the floor. She ran forward but side-stepped Skye when she tried to hug her.

 _“I can’t risk it”_ Fidah said sadly

Skye nodded at her and pulled Lincoln up from the floor.

_“I can get those collars off you. It’s gonna hurt, but I can rip them apart.”_

The couple took each other’s hands and nodded, Fidah focused her powers on the components of the collars and she tore them out. Skye screamed when the needle left her neck, but she held out. Lincoln swore and almost fell to the floor because of the pain.

Skye’s own powers start to emerge, the rocks and stone started to shake at her touch. The mine began to become unstable; sections of rock fell all around them. Electricity started sparking from Lincoln’s hands. He threw bolts at the incoming soldiers with glee. They saw Remi and Kurt half concealed by black smoke in the chaos and nodded. Remi and Kurt went one way and the trio went the other. After that Fidah insisted that she had to find Alex too. Despite their protestations, he was probably dead, she didn’t even know where he was. Fidah agreed with all this, hell she barely knew him, but he had given her hope and deserved to get out of this place. She had to find out if he was even alive. They found the elevators stepping over bodies as they went, there was so much blood everywhere. It made a horrible squelching sound on the floor as they stepped through it. The trio took turns taking out guards that came at them, one got a bolt of electricity to the heart, one collapsed under the rocks and another got slammed into the wall. Thankfully Fidah’s blast of power hadn’t taken everything out. The three of them approached the medical level, hands and fists out ready to attack.

But there had been a remarkable shift in the time since Fidah had been there. It looked like other mutants had beaten them too it. Lights were now ripped out, the same blood bath of the mine had been continued upstairs. Bodies littered the corridors and there was a red splatter across one of the walls. The place was also empty, or apparently so. The three walked on looking around opening doors slowly, paranoid at disturbing anyone, someone. However they found nothing. Fidah started to reach out with her mind, she thought maybe she could find him somehow. It was a weak hope as she’d never been in Alex’s head so didn’t have a real connection. She did her best, focusing on his laugh, the sound of his voice, comforting her when she was hurt and then suddenly she felt something. It was faint, barely there. While this was happening Skye and Lincoln stared at her as Fidah wondered around apparently staring at nothing.

 _“I think she might be telepathic too…”_ Skye murmured

 _“Ya think?”_

They followed their mad friend through the corridors until she blinked rapidly and slammed the door on her right open. Skye and Lincoln stared. The monster they had had heard so much about and only seen rarely? That was Alex? The man Fidah risked so much for?

He was restrained on a metal table, topless, a white sheet covered his bottom half. His arms were pulled out, a mask was on his face and a metal tray filled with medical instruments was laid out next to him. On his other side a set of needles were in his arm. There was a long cut across his ribs as well as dozens of other scars all over him. The chaos of the escape must have interrupted whatever new experiment the scientists had planned for him. Fidah ran towards him, pushing the tray out of the way, all the scalpels and saws fell to the floor with a crash. She paused for a second, she was paranoid about touching his face, memories of her powers and what they could do to people span around in her head. She grabbed one of the scalpels from the floor and the cut mask away and the restraints around his wrists. Then Fidah moved around and pulled the needles from his arm, blood dripped down. She came back around to face still keeping her hands at bay

_“Alex, please wake up, please wake up, can you hear me.”_

Maybe if she touched him for a second? Could it shock him into waking up? Screw it she had to pull him out of whatever dark crevice they had dragged him into. Fidah put her hands onto his face and then pulled back. It was enough, as soon as their skins touched, his eyes snapped open

 _“It’s you…you’re alive..”_ he murmured bringing his arm to touch her face, she let her fingers lightly touch his, her fear temporarily forgotten.

 _“Hi…”_ She smiled at him

“ _They told me, you you were…”_ Alex murmured again, he stared at her

_“Whatever they said, it was a lie... Alex I’m right here.”_

_“How did you know it was me…you never saw my face. How did you even know to look for me? I thought if you saw me…”_ His brain wasn’t functioning properly, the drugs were making his brain fuzzy. Although talking seemed impossible (or at least coherent sentences) he did manage to sit up, his fingers still locked in hers.

_“I recognised your eyes, those blue eyes and your hands.”_

_“Then why didn’t you say anything…”_ Alex tried to continue, but a frightened lab tech game up behind Fidah wielding a desk lamp as if it were a deadly weapon.

She registered the man instantly and that she was still holding Alex’s hand. She dropped it in panic unsure of why nothing was happening and terrified of hurting him. Fidah span around, her eyes glowed a sparkling ice white blue matching the power coming from her fingers.

_“Just try it…I swear…I don’t need an excuse, try it…”_

Fidah lifted her hand up and the tech dropped the lamp, he was floating in the air and then she pushed him against the wall .He got up despite the severe knock and ran out of another door.

_“Your powers...they’re…the collars they’re gone…”_

_“Yes and I can get yours off too. I can destroy it.”_

Alex rubbed the collar uneasily around his neck, he’d had it on so long, he didn’t quite believe it could come off without killing him.

_“I swear to you I can this off you. Alex, you just have to trust me.”_

_“Look Alex, my name is Skye okay, we’ve never really spoken. But Fidah is right, she can yank the collar off. She took mine off and Lincoln’s and we’re still standing.”_

Alex stared as if registering there were two more people in the room for the first time. They were a young couple he’d seen in the mines for a few years, he was amazed they’d managed to survive. But then his eyes returned to Fidah and he nodded. She brought her hands up and placed them a few centimetres above the collar. She concentrated her mind on the collar, all the circuitry, all the parts, the tiny pieces of metal and the needle at the back. She pulled them apart, every tiny bit of, she ripped it to shreds with all her might, yanking it away from Alex’s neck. For a few seconds the collar was there mid air broken into pieces, he stared at it and then Fidah flung it through the door and it exploded bringing dust and mess down on them.

There was heavy bruising on his neck and yet more scars from cuts that had been healed long ago. But it was gone, Alex could feel his powers start to return. His body was heating up, it was like it was on fire. A crimson glow began to emanate from Alex’s skin, Fidah backed away urging Skye and Lincoln to do the same. A blinding circle of light came out of Alex and he screamed. The red light threw a dent into the wall . Fidah raced through the door into one of the medical labs that stood next to them. Skye and Lincoln simply dived to the floor. And then all of a sudden it was all over, Alex was sitting up breathing hard but alive. They three of them came back towards him, he managed to stand up and then wobbled. Lincoln caught him and smiled at him. He nodded and walked forward stumbling slightly. Fidah found the frightened tech and stole his sweater off him and tossed it Alex, he donned it gratefully.

Now came the complicated matter of trying to get out, the elevator that had so helpfully got them up to the right level was now bust and time was ticking on. All the soldiers couldn’t be gone, they could all hear ominous noises of possible boots on the ground coming towards them.

 _“I’ve got a crazy idea”_ Skye said suddenly

 _“I’m down with crazy”_ Fidah responded

_“Okay, us two are going to get ourselves and the boys out. I’m going to push down and give us enough power to push up through the ceiling and can you push up and smash the ceiling and the walls to give us a route out?”_

_“You’re right that is nuts”_ Alex responded

 _“Got any better ideas?”_ Lincoln snapped

_“I think I can help. I can destroy the ceiling too.”_

_“No you have to hold Skye’s hands, both Lincoln and you do. I can clear the way”_

_“How are you going to hold onto her then?”_

_“I’ll work it out”_

_“But..”_

_“No time for buts, Skye I’m game for trying this. Ready??”_

Skye nodded. The boys grabbed Skye’s hands as the air around her started to pulse. Fidah moved closer in careful not to any of them. It felt as though she was stepping onto a shaking platform that she could fall all at any moment. The four of them started to float upwards and Fidah had a moment of fear. However a bullet flying past her ear pushed that back down. She raised her hands and blue sparks flew out, the ceiling gave way, Alex put his own hand up and red light flew upwards they swirled together in a weird purple snake. They started to move faster and they were at the ceiling and they were through the first one and then the second. Guns were being fired up at them, Skye shifted her powers slightly to knock the men down. And suddenly they were racing, this strange tangled mess of power and air smashing through the ceilings and walls.

Eventually the four of them made it out into the sunlight. Skye almost lost it then as they were thousands of feet in the air, she was struggling to keep them all up there. Lincoln spotted a forest

_“Skye aim for the trees!!”_

She desperately tried to follow his suggestion, but the control was slipping. Fidah looked back at the facilities of corporation. She could see all the soldiers running around like tiny ants below them. She threw a blast of power in that direction, the blue and silver lines touched the huge stone pillars and metal wiring that surrounded the buildings. The stone began to crack. Fidah didn’t see the towers crumble as they were flying/falling towards the forest.

Then they were falling through branches, cutting themselves on spikes and leaves and they were on the ground. Frightened that the guards would keep on them (Not a bad fear to have) they ran through the trees that surrounded the facility and kept going. Eventually they all collapsed in a heap deep in the forest, coughing and sweating. None of them said anything, they couldn’t quite believe that they were all out.

Skye and Lincoln cuddled and kissed each other. Fidah simply lay on the grass breathing and rasping the cold air around them and Alex just stared at the greener. He hadn’t been outside in so many years, his eyes were having trouble believing that this wasn’t all some kind of messed up fantasy and at some point he would wake up and suddenly be back in his hole. He touched the grass and the trees and marvelled at the mud and the dirt that was coming away in his hands, he also revelled at his powers now coursing through his blood once again. The burning heat that he hadn’t felt in 10 years was suddenly back. His body, his self was finally whole again. He saw Fidah lying with her back on the grass and crawled towards her, she’d done it! She’d actually done it! He moved towards her to grab her hand, but she saw it flinched away from him. Of course, now in the light of day, he must seem like a monster too her. He did his best to push the sinking feeling away in his heart and returned his attention to nature and the trees around him.

The reason Fidah had flinched hadn’t had anything to do with Alex’s appearance, it was just the reality of her own powers returning. She knew she wouldn’t be able to touch anyone outside her own family and she didn’t want to risk hurting anyone, especially not Alex, not after all he had been through. She felt ashamed because he was clearly upset, but she also knew she didn’t have enough control over her powers. Given the state she was in, she simply didn’t want to take the risk.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know what you think, I hope haven't wrecked the speed of this story. I wanted the moment where Alex and Fidah find each other to be a little bit slower as well for him to interact a bit more with the other characters
> 
> Tell me what you think!


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Our heroes have made their escape and discuss their plans for what next? 
> 
> Alex exhausted and confused, tries to think where he can go or who will take him in?

Alex stood stared at the emerald green and thought about the other three. The strange little gang had ended up stopping in a small clearing flanked by evergreens and pines maybe. Whatever the trees were, they were absolutely huge towering above them. The sky now a strange mix of blue and pink peaked out in between the shapes of the leaves smiling down at them (that was at least how Alex saw it). Skye and Lincoln were leaning against a tree talking quietly each other, Lincoln flicked a leaf out her hair and Fidah? She was still in the mud and the grass staring directly at the ever-changing sky. He could just see the sparks still emanating from her fingers. He didn’t really know what to say to any of them. His head was in a confused space. What did he tell the woman who had saved his life, but was now terrified of touching him? How did he talk to a couple who were so clearly in love with each other that the rest of the world could burn, and they wouldn’t notice? Now the adrenaline of the chase was wearing off, he was also becoming painfully aware of how broken his body was. The long cut against his side, although not bleeding felt raw and tender. The drugs that were at least still partly in his system made his whole body ache. There were bruises all over his back and a jagged cut on one of his legs from weeks before that had never really healed properly. His arm also still ached from when it was broken all those years ago. But perhaps most importantly the burning was back. The white-hot feel of his powers coursing through his veins. He was grateful for it’s return, but now a little calmer, he was frightened of it too. He remembered his childhood and teen years when his powers first emerged and hoped that he could the pulsing red glow under control.

His mind was also trying to scrabble about and think what the hell he was supposed to do next? He’d never really thought he was going to be free, so he hadn’t given much thought (or if he had, he’d buried the hope along time ago to keep himself sane). He had nowhere to go, his home had burned long ago and what could he do? He’d never told anyone what had truly happened that day although his memory had long since recovered. He could see the fire coming towards him, hear Hank screaming at him. Everything he had had in his life was destroyed or forgotten. The mutants if any of them had survived would never let him come back, he’d hurt people, killed them even. Hell he had destroy them home, if Alex had been in their position, he wouldn’t welcome someone like him back; a freak amongst freaks. Could he go on the run? Perhaps, but where to even start? Could he go with these people? Follow them or tag along? Would they even want him there? So many questions and not enough head space to deal with it at all. Fidah’s voice brought him out of his thoughts

_“Alex, do you want to come closer to the fire? Lincoln’s managed to conjure it almost out of nowhere apparently”_

_“It really wasn’t that hard.”_

_“Alex?”_

Alex nodded at Fidah and shuffled forward. He realised that he’d been so long for so long that the evening had come on. Lincoln had managed to build a fire, he’d explained that years of being on the run from the government and various other groups (he’d kept the details vague) had taught him a thing or two about surviving. Fidah had gotten up and managed to find blackberries, after the three of them looked at her doubtfully she gulped four in succession and grinned. She tipped them onto the earth near the fire, a whole pile of them

_“I know it’s not exactly gourmet, but still food’s food”_

The others needed no encouragement, they tore into them. Fidah leapt back as they all grabbed handfuls. It was glorious, food that actually tasted of something! It was sweet, sour, tangy and fantastic!

_“I think I can safely save Fi that these are the best berries I’ve ever tasted!”_

_“I second that”_ Skye added attempting a toast with the berries.

Alex didn’t say much, he just stared into the fire after licking his hands and the blackberry stains away from his face. There was a novelty value being around people again, the angry bitter part of his brain said that it wouldn’t last. He did his best to push those thoughts away. The foursome settled into a companiable silence, Fi started using her powers to flick the flames this way and that making the other two giggle. For someone who was so afraid of people, she was in one way very content with her powers, Alex thought. Finally the conversation came around to what would happen now

_“We were thinking, once we figure out where we are, we could maybe head to Hawaii?” Skye added_

_“Why there?” Fidah asked_

_“My father is down there and he can…let’s say help us disappear. We can live our lives and just be..”_

_“Normal…”_ Alex added quietly

 _“Yes, exactly”_ Skye said smiling at him

 _“Not so much normal, more free, we can be free to live our lives how we chose. What about you Fi?”_ Lincoln asked in an attempt to shift awkwardness

_“Um…well home was New York City for me. I think I gotta go back and check if my family are alright. I don’t know if they’re like hurt or what happened to them or the corporation got to them or…I just have to know. And I mean my life was there before all this…”_

_“Alex what about you?”_ Lincoln added, Fidah tried to stop him, but Alex spoke up still staring at the flames

_“I don’t really know…I…my home was New York too once upon a time. But my family…they’re gone now. I’m not sure. I…I don’t know.”_

_“You could always come back to New York with me, I’m sure my parents would welcome you with open arms”_ Fidah added

Alex stared at her, was it a possible? A lifeline out of this confusion?

_“Sure. I mean…if they’re okay. You saved my life. They’d be honoured to know you, but you could all come back with me if you wanted”_

Ahhh Alex thought, it was a sympathy invite. She couldn’t just invite Lincoln and Skye, so she had to ask all three of them. The couple cooed at her, but they insisted on staying away from New York City.

_“We made one too many enemies in the big apple. I like the idea of sunshine too”_

_“There’s sunshine in New York!”_

_“What about a beach?”_

_“Fair enough”_

_“You could always join us in Hawaii, invite your folks down to discover the warmth and soft sand”_

Fidah snorted and spat blackberry juice out of her nose. After they’d all eaten and Lincoln had successfully banked the fire, they laid down to try and sleep. Lincoln and Skye cuddled into each other much in the way they had down in the mines. Fidah lay next to the fire and Alex lay near her, head-to-head. She couldn’t sleep and he was staring up at the stars peeking out from behind the leaves

_“Hey Alex are you asleep?”_

_“Yes, are you?”_

_“No, I just.. I think. Never… mind.”_

_“Come on Fidah, tell me. You don’t have to worry about me saving my ears this time.”_

She giggled at him

_“I think you should come back to the big apple with me.”_

_“But why?”_

_“Because…because you saved my life when I was at my most vulnerable and I don’t know, I want to repay you for that._ _And I think I don’t know…you should get a shot at something not shit. I’m not really explaining this well. If you don’t want to come….it’s fine. I just thought as New York was your only connection and we could keep each other company…maybe.”_

_“We don’t even know where we are…”_

_“When we know where we are…it might be a long trip or a short one. We’ll have to scout in the morning and find out. We’d obviously have to find money from somewhere too…I mean…I. Look just think about it. New York and just for the record my parents would welcome you.”_

Alex promised Fidah he would think about it. She assented and then determinedly shut her eyes. She couldn’t exactly define why she had made the offer to Alex, partly it was pity, partly it some white knight syndrome maybe? But also on some level, she thought Alex and she could have gotten along. She liked his blue eyes and he’d managed to make her laugh where she was scared in a deep dark hole. That had to count for something right Maybe she was overthinking it, he’d want to run away from everything and see the world maybe? Wouldn’t she want that? To see everything? Taste everything? That was partly her own plan. To eat and drink and live as much as possible to make up for the 13 months of hell she’d been through. Sleep overtook Fidah, she slept sprawled out keeping her back close to the fire.

Alex did not sleep. Fidah’s repeated offer span around in his brain, part of him longed to take it. The words “they’ll welcome you with open arms” were so appealing, it harked back to a time before. It made him think of Xavier and the hope he and other mutants had given him, what he had hope they might have given his brother had he survived. There was no point thinking about Scott now…he was dead and buried (Alex hoped that someone would have buried him or his ashes had floated into the wind).

Part of him wanted to wipe his slate clean and forget his blood-soaked history. Maybe this woman and her family could give him that? New York was at least familiar to him, the city was vast too. Surely he could disappear in a metropolis that sprawling and vast? But Alex also balked at accepting the offer. Doubts and paranoia filled his mind. They would be terrified of him. Fidah was scared to touch him, what would her parents say if he turned up on their doorstep? He looked like a monster for a fairy tale. How could he lie to Fidah after she saved his life? How would that be fair? Would that bring risk down on her head or her family? He pushed tangled thoughts out of his mind and focused on the practical. It was weird not sleeping on stone for the first time in a decade. The earth was not uncomfortable, but it had a lot of knobbly bits poking into his back. He found himself twitching around like a child. But he liked the warmth of the fire and he liked watching it as well. It was something new to him or rather long forgotten, watching the amber colours flutter back and forth calmed him. If he watched their path everything else faded. The stars above him were fascinating too (something his teachers might have been shocked to him say that), physics had never been his strong suit in school or college. He tried to watch both at the same time in a bid to take every single bit in. He found himself trying to recall the constellations too as they twinkled above him. His own exhaustion won out in the end. He fell sound asleep, the sounds of the fire in his ears. He stretched out partly because he knew he could and not have to touch the horrible cold stone. He didn’t realise it, but he touched the tips of Fidah’s fingers, mimicking the position they had both adopted locked in the cells. Nothing dramatic happened, Fidah didn’t hurt Alex at all, nor he her. If one looked very closely at the sleeping figures in this dark wood, one might see a series of coloured lines moving slowly out into the air. But that was all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally a new chapter!! Feedback v welcome as this was quite a hard scene to right. I wanted to give them all a bit of piece but show it wasn't perfect!


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